Before She Said I Do
by yuugiri
Summary: He could only offer a promise. That was all she ever needed. The story follows the first year Taiga comes home to Ryuuji.
1. The First Day of the Rest of Their Lives

**A/N: After watching Toradora! for the second time, I couldn't quite help myself from writing a fic about them. The story will delve on the first year Taiga came home to Ryuuji, and the obstacles they have to undertake and the ghosts they have to face before getting married.**

**Disclaimer applies to other chapters:**

**I do not own Toradora! Whatever events that will take place in this story come from nothing more than my imagination. I haven't read the light novel, and I haven't read the manga. Everything I will be writing here is based purely on the anime. **

**Chapter One:**

**The First Day of the Rest of Their Lives.**

* * *

_There is something in this world which no one has ever seen._

_It is soft and sweet._

_If it is spotted, I'm sure everyone will want to have it,_

_Which is why no one has ever seen it._

_For this world has hidden it quite well, so that it is difficult to obtain._

_But, there will come a day when it is discovered by somebody,_

_And only those who should obtain it will be able to find it._

_That is all._

* * *

_~March 1~_

Takasu Ryuuji had always considered himself quite patient – almost to the point of over-tolerating – when it came to everything concerning his future. Perhaps his lack of aggressiveness was what made his homeroom teacher worry so much about his career assessment form when he was in his second year in high school. He did not understand how she could demand a person to figure out the rest of his life in a matter of minutes, more so write it down on a stupid piece of paper. And when he finally did open up to her that he was not financially capable of entering a college after graduating, she had been more than adamant about convincing him to change his mind.

The truth was, Ryuuji never really thought about getting into a college, especially when it didn't really sit well with him that his mother showed the potential of starting odd jobs on top of her night job. And he didn't even want to begin dealing with _that_. His family was poor, and so he never really made any assumptions about Ya-chan's insistence on a _"fabulous"_ life after college.

Until now.

He looked across the table to the tiny, light-haired girl hacking her way through a plate of pancakes with a vengeance, and felt, for once, how happy it would make him if he were able to give this wonderful creature the _"fabulous" _future she deserved.

Aisaka Taiga never demanded anything from him. Majority of the time she was spoiled, and more often than not she was greedy, but she was never, _never _selfish. She was the kind of person who preferred putting her friends before her own feelings, even when it hurt her the most. The truth was, Ryuuji wasn't at all aware of what had happened the night before they ran away a year ago… Minori had said a lot of things he couldn't quite understand, and then, it was just so very Taiga to have acted on her own and run away to her mother's place a day _after_ they finally find out they were actually in love with each other, and had in fact been in love for a time now. They had kept in touch through text messages and random phone calls, but Taiga being Taiga, she hadn't actually been elaborate when it came to her life with her mother.

She did mention, however, that she had been living with her mother and her mother's new husband, along with a half-brother. When he had asked her if she was having fun, or how her day was, she would end up finding excuses to cut the call short, or turn the tables around and interrogate him about _his _day, and _his _life. It had been frustrating, but Ryuuji knew how Taiga could be quite secretive about family matters, and insistent on solving her problems alone. She was good at running away.

It was a blessing Ryuuji was an expert at chasing after people, or so Ami had very articulately pointed out to him once upon a time.

He guessed that was why he had been a bit angry at Taiga when she didn't even give him a chance to chase after her when she'd decided to leave him. And it was so like her to appear on his graduation day, acting as if they hadn't been apart for a year. He had found her in the broom locker, plotting a surprise attack on him. But he already knew her too well. The first time he'd had a major encounter with her, she'd rolled out of the same broom locker. She was clumsy and had placed an empty love letter in his bag by mistake. A small piece of said empty love letter now covered a hole she had personally left when she broke in and entered his house in the middle of the night. The more he thought about it, the more he felt like smiling. This led to that, but only the gods could know how they ended up falling in love with each other in the process. Or was it really a mystery? Everyone seemed to have known it – Minori, Ami, Yusaku – everyone. Except Taiga and Ryuuji themselves. And it took all three of his friends to show them the hard way that they were made for each other.

"If you think I'm giving you any of these pancakes if you give me puppy-dog eyes, think again, Ryuuji," Taiga growled as she stuffed a generous amount of pancake into her mouth, maple syrup dripping down her chin. She quickly wiped her face with a paper napkin.

Ryuuji rested his elbow on the table, chin on his hand, and gave her a rueful look. "You can have your pancakes. I just hope you'd have room for dinner."

She brightened at that. "What's for dinner?"

It was also very Taiga-like to assume that she would be having a free meal at Ryuuji's place. "Whatever you want, so long as this time you'd come over. Ya-chan would be so happy to see you."

Taiga's smile widened, her cheeks puffing up in the way Ryuuji remembered it, reminding him of a very happy hamster. "I've missed Ya-chan…"

He raised his eyebrows at her. "It's your fault for disappearing for a year without saying goodbye properly. The least you could have done was stay for dinner." He was not blaming her. He knew that talking about something that happened a year ago would only make Taiga angry, and the last thing Ryuuji wanted was to argue with her. He was surprised, however, when her hand put down the fork on her plate and she looked up at him grudgingly.

"Sorry," she said quietly, the red on her face deepening. She began playing with a long lock of her hair absently. Then, as if in denial of emotions that came close to embarrassment, she turned to him quickly and bared her teeth. "If you're so keen on complaining – "

"I'm not complaining," Ryuuji cut her off gently as he reached for the one hand she had placed near her plate. She made a move to swat him away, but he caught her tiny fingers between his long ones and squeezed before letting go. She quickly hid her hands underneath the table. "I'm not complaining, Taiga. I'm just saying that I wish – before you come up with any huge, drastic decision in your life from now on – that you'd let your family know before you rush in head first. Ya-chan was worried about you." He looked away, his turn to be embarrassed. "_I _was worried about you."

Taiga was silent for a few moments before she started hastily shoveling more pancake into her mouth. She was looking for an excuse not to talk. Yes, she was an expert in finding excuses for everything. And then she would run away when she got stumped. Just like that day a year ago. She had disappeared, leaving a mere letter in her apartment, and a paper bag full of important documents and a lone sock that nearly drove him crazy when he couldn't find its buddy. It was annoying that she could assume he would understand her motives without an explanation. But what made him wonder more was the fact that he _did _understand.

"Don't ever disappear from me again," Ryuuji whispered hoarsely.

Taiga noisily chewed on her food, swallowed hard and pointed at him with her fork. "I did what I had to do," she snapped.

"We could have done it together," he reasoned.

"I… I can handle it on my own."

"But you don't have to. You should have known better when I asked you to marry me," Ryuuji said forcefully, and he snapped the fork from her, gently resting it on the plate. He once again snatched her hand, this time not letting go. "And I should have known better when you agreed. Fine, if you want to run away again by yourself. I just want you to know, that if you do, I _will _chase after you. And I _will_ catch you. And I _will_ bring you back. Even if it involves throwing you over my shoulder."

That had blood rushing to Taiga's face in a hurry. She tried to pull her hand free, but Ryuuji wouldn't let go. "I'm sorry…" she said again. Then she nodded. "I'm counting on you, then. To bring me back, I mean. If I ever do… you know… run away."

Ryuuji had not expected her to give up so easily. Taiga never gave up without a good fight. Was it going to be like this from now on, he wondered? A part of him felt kind of disappointed. He was counting on a good argument, actually. He gave her hand a squeeze. "I've missed you," he said silently.

Taiga's eyes widened and she kicked his shin from under the table, making Ryuuji bite down a scream that almost escaped his mouth as the pain zigzagged through his leg, straight to his brain. Taiga pulled her hand from his grip. "Idiot! Can't you think of a better place to say romantic things instead of a coffee shop? Anyone could be looking…" she looked left, then right, as if expecting people to be pointing at them and laughing. Unfortunately for her, they were the only ones in the coffee shop at the moment.

Ryuuji had to smile down at her. It was a wonder how a person could stay the same, yet different, in a span of a year. Right now, all he wanted to do was stare at his girlfriend for hours to make sure her face was imprinted in his brain. He had been waiting for this for a year. He could not even believe she was here in front of him right now.

"Don't stare too much. You're making me insecure…" Taiga protested.

"Of course." Ryuuji looked down at his wristwatch – at his grandfather's wristwatch – and sighed. "The supermarket has a half-price sale until six. If we hurry, we might be able to get our hands on a few good pork chops. How do pork cutlets sound to you?" He looked up from his watch and was surprised to see Taiga looked at him with glassy, round eyes. "What?" he asked uncertainly.

Taiga, as if in a trance, slowly smiled at him and said, "Pork cutlets… sound wonderful."

"Great. I'll make the best cutlets you've ever tasted in your life." He noticed Taiga had somehow lost weight, especially in the face. It was not going to be a surprise if he found out that she had not been eating as much while they were apart. God forbid she had been eating noodles out of those Styrofoam cups… The thought of the lack of any nutritional value of those horrible things nearly made him shiver in horror.

"Ryuuji?" Taiga suddenly spoke, this time it was her turn to reach out for his hand.

"Hm?" he asked, looking down at her, puzzled.

Taiga squeezed two of his fingers tightly, then looked up at him with those large eyes of hers and said quietly, "I missed you too."

And that was all it had to take for Ryuuji to melt in his seat as memories of last year washed over him like a warm blanket.

_It doesn't matter how long it would take. Our families were never that perfect to begin with, but I promise you, now that I know you're willing to spend the rest of your life with me, I will do everything – _everything _– in my power to make _ours _perfect. Or maybe not exactly perfect, but I promise it will be _complete_._

Uncharacteristically feeling bold, he leaned down and brought her hand to his lips for a light kiss. And uncharacteristically, Taiga didn't pull away, she didn't protest, and she didn't curse.

Instead, she blushed. And it reminded Ryuuji of how a sunset would look like after a storm.

Until he felt her kick him in the shin again painfully, and it reminded him of how Taiga never liked public displays of affection. While Ryuuji had grown up with a mother who was never at all stingy with hugs, kisses and the occasional cuddling, Taiga grew up mostly by herself, deprived of parental affection that she didn't even know she wanted. Aside from that one night when she rarely showed her thirst for intimacy when they shared their first kiss, it was no surprise for Ryuuji that Taiga was uncomfortable with affection that could possibly be seen by others.

But in reality, Ryuuji didn't care. He was holding her hand after a year of being apart, and it would take more than a kick in the shin to have him let go.

* * *

**_TBC_**


	2. Hugs and Kisses

**Chapter Two:**

**Hugs and Kisses**

* * *

_~March 6 ~_

The apartment Taiga rented back in High School was, ironically, cleaner in her absence for a year. Ryuuji, as if subconsciously driven to make sure Taiga would still have a place to come home to, had diligently cleaned the place five times a week. It was a relatively new compound and house dust didn't necessarily accumulate that fast, but Ryuuji – out of obsessive compulsiveness or the simple fact that he'd missed Taiga terribly – managed to find time to vacuum up and open the windows to air the place up in the evenings or the very early mornings. For this, Ya-chan called him a _'sweet boyfriend'_. Kushieda called him a _'crazy stalker-dude who had too much free time'_. Ami simply called him an idiot.

Well, given that he _did_ have a lot of free time and he was _fairly_ an idiot, he didn't bother to defend himself from them. The truth was, he was just lonely.

And obsessive-compulsive.

And bored.

Because of this, Ya-chan had successfully convinced him to look up brochures and pamphlets of local colleges within the area.

"_You don't have to hurry. You can always make the cut-offs for the second semester in autumn. Use the following months to study for entrance exams, all right?" _Ya-chan had said not a few days ago when Ryuuji pointed out that it was impossible to get into _any _University without studying.

Of course, he was lying.

Ryuuji seldom needed to study. He always got the lessons the teachers taught him at school, thus eliminating the necessity to crack the books at home, aside from doing the inevitable homework. This was not because he was super smart, nor was he a genius. It was only because he didn't end up falling asleep in class, like fifty percent of the classroom's population. If Ryuuji hadn't been Ryuuji, he would have spent majority of the time feeling superior over them, but in reality he knew more than anything that deep down inside, he envied them. _He_ didn't have the luxury to fall asleep in class. If he fell asleep, he'd have to make up by studying at home. If he studied at home, he wouldn't have enough time to do the chores and cook dinner and Ya-chan's breakfast the next day. While the rest of his classmates had the opulence to slack, Ryuuji had to do housework. Everyone in his class had the opportunity to be children.

Well, maybe except Taiga…

But come to think of it, Taiga never cared much about grades. Or about her future. She had voiced it out to their homeroom teacher that her family was rich enough that she didn't have to worry about trivial things like _'work'_ or _'the future'._

And once again, if Ryuuji hadn't been Ryuuji, he could actually have been jealous of her. But he wasn't…

He wondered how much her father was sending to compensate for his absence.

He also wondered how bitter it must have made Taiga to receive money instead of love.

Ryuuji could only sigh as he found his thoughts once again running away with him. It had been but a week since Taiga's return, and all he could ever thing about was Taiga's _past_ and their _future_. Were normal eighteen-year-olds usually like this? He wondered if Kitamura was the same as he.

Stupid question.

Kitamura had just flown to America to chase after the love of his life without the slightest assurance that she'd return his feelings.

Ryuuji blamed it on male hormones. Stupid male hormones.

"Ya-chan," Ryuuji called out over his shoulder after turning off the heat of the gas range. His mother had requested for stir-fry vegetables for lunch, but the woman seemed to have plans of oversleeping on her very rare day off. Ryuuji didn't blame her. Her night job at the Club had completely turned her into a vampire, and because her popularity's increased for the last months over the winter, she would come home a couple of hours later than usual, and she would be very, very drunk that having a decent conversation with her was close to impossible.

Today, however, was a leave day, and Ryuuji had been looking forward to a quiet lunch with Taiga and Ya-chan, and maybe a date with Taiga later tonight to meet up with Minori.

Now, if only Ya-chan would wake up…

"Do you think it would be all right if we barged into her room and drag her out to eat?" Taiga, who was sprawled on her belly reading a magazine, asked absently.

Ryuuji looked down at her uncertainly, then shook his head. "She's tired. We should just leave her share in the fridge and reheat it later when she wakes up."

Taiga flipped the magazine page and scratched her nose, looking bored. "She didn't eat breakfast, and now she's skipping lunch," she pointed out, crossing then re-crossing her legs by the ankles. "And isn't that some sort of unwritten Ryuuji Rule, you know, like, _'breakfast is the most important meal of the day'_, or something like that?"

Ryuuji frowned. "It's not a _Ryuuji Rule_." Whatever that might mean… "It's a _fact _that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Which reminds me. Did _you _eat breakfast?"

Taiga flashed him a toothy grin. "I had a donut and coffee."

"Glucose and caffeine aren't breakfast."

"Of course it is. To me," Taiga yawned and rolled over on her back, closing the magazine and pushing it across the floor. It slid under the refrigerator, much to Ryuuji's annoyance.

Well, at least now he knew what Taiga's been eating for the last year.

Pouring the stir-fry onto an open plate and placing it on the low center table, he hurried back to the kitchen to prepare the rice. A part of him was starting to consider Taiga's suggestion of forcefully waking Ya-chan up.

After depositing the bowls of rice and miso soup by the plate of vegetables, he bent down and fished the magazine Taiga was reading earlier from under the fridge. He had been so used to cleaning up after her back in high school that bringing back the old habit wasn't at all difficult.

Ryuuji discovered that Taiga had been reading a fashion magazine with Kawashima Ami on the front cover for the spring collection. In the last year Ami had been as popular as ever, and he'd heard from her personally that she'd received offers on several supporting roles on daytime TV dramas. But along with her undeniable popularity came her undeniable indifference on the subject. She would be turning eighteen this year. Her manager had been nagging her to _'make up her mind'_ about her career while she was still young. She told her manager to '_kiss her ass'_.

Ryuuji could only sigh as he looked down at the picture of a smiling Ami in a cute yellow dress and heels. She was such a weird girl, knowing too much more than she'd ever let on. Nonetheless, he liked her. Most of the time, anyway… When you didn't try to understand her way of thinking. Another girl Ryuuji thought to have strange eating habits. He supposed all girls were weird when it came to their diets.

"Ryuuji?" Taiga called to him, somewhat distressed. "I think Inko-chan's dead."

Ryuuji looked up from the magazine. "Yeah, lately he's learned that new trick and mess with Ya-chan's head. If you give him a treat, he'll spring back to life."

Taiga plucked a biscuit from the small Tupperware right next to the cage containing treats and waved it in front of the cage, and as expected the physically challenged parakeet flapped its wings in a scatter of ugly feathers.

"_Ta-t-ta-t-t-ta –_ " the bird stuttered.

Ryuuji sucked in his breath sharply and hurried to his girlfriend's side, abandoning the magazine on the floor. "Inko-chan?" Was their pet finally going to venture into learning saying other people's names now? "You can do it, Inko-chan! Say Taiga's name. Say _Taiga_. _Tai-i-ga.._."

Taiga leaned forward in anticipation, a determined look in those large eyes of hers. "Can he do it?"

"He might."

"_Ta-ta…_"

"Ta-i-ga…"

"_Ta – _!"

Ryuugi swallowed hard. "Ta~?"

"_Tampon!_"

And Taiga, Ryuuji and the god-forsaken bird fell into a very, very uncomfortable silence.

After a moment, Taiga spoke quietly. "What on earth have you been teaching him?"

Ryuuji, face heating up, ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "I think he's picking up most of his vocabulary from Ya-chan lately."

"_Lately?"_ Taiga looked at him from the corner of her eye.

"She's told me about this new girl at work, and since they're the same age – " eternally twenty-three, that is …" – they hit it off the moment they met. They talk on the phone occasionally about… you know…. Girl stuff, and… yeah, girl stuff." Just the thought of his mother talking about breast-enhancing beans, sex and contraception on the phone made his ears hot.

Taiga was looking at him suspiciously, but she let the conversation drop. Handing the biscuit to the parakeet and watched as it gobbled the treat up greedily, she turned to Ryuuji. "How is Minorin, by the way?"

The inquiry made Ryuuji blink at her uncomfortably. Taiga had been home for a week already. Hasn't she met up with her best friend yet? "She's fine. Busy with softball practice and job hunting, as usual. You heard she got into Ninomae Institute, right?"

The thought made Taiga smile ruefully as she replaced the pink cloth covering the parakeet. "She might have mentioned it once or twice."

If Ryuuji didn't know any better, he'd have thought Taiga to be hiding something from him. She was great at masking her emotions. And it was just not within his personality to pry. Not to mention the fact that he felt quite self-conscious talking about the girl he used to fancy to his present girlfriend.

He patted her head affectionately, marveling once again at how very tiny she was. "Why don't we go see her tonight? She works at the Chinese restaurant downtown on Mondays until six in the evening. We can eat dinner there and wait for her to get off. If you want to, that is."

Taiga's eyes widened at the suggestion, and an unreadable expression crossed her face. It was gone the moment it came and she nodded. "All right." Shaking off the hand Ryuuji had placed on top of her head, she crawled back towards the table and grinned happily. "I'm hungry."

She was great with changing conversational subjects as well...

Ryuuji scratched the back of his neck. "Go on. I guess I'll try and wake Ya-chan up after all, even at the risk of losing a finger or two." He moved to stand to make his way to the sliding door leading to Yasuko's room, when there was a loud crash coming from the front door, and a very ear-piercing "OWWW!" followed after.

Taiga's head shot up at mid-chew and Ryuuji froze in his place. That sounded suspiciously like –

Yasuko tumbled into the living room, locks of blonde hair escaping what could have been an elegant bun on top of her head. "Oh! Oh! Why do Mr. Keys have to be – " The words faded in her mouth when she saw Ryuuji and Taiga both staring at her with wide, open confusion.

Ryuuji's pointy fingers started jerking from the closed bedroom door, to Yasuko, then back again. "Weren't you… Just now… I thought… " The shock at discovering his mother hadn't been sleeping in her room when he had been sure she'd come home at around five in the morning like always was a first to him.

Yasuko's face reddened. Ryuuji could tell that however drunk she must have been a minute ago, she was _very _sober now.

"Good… morning?" Ryuuji greeted uncertainly as Yasuko giggled uncontrollably.

"Ya-chan is home! How are my lovely children?" she asked cheerfully as she abandoned her purse on the floor and sat in front of the table. Smoothly, she reached out and picked a carrot from the plate of stir-fry and popped it into her mouth.

"Stop that," Tyuuji ordered sourly as he handed Yasuko a pair of chopsticks he had procured from his apron. "You didn't even wash your hands."

Taiga was staring at Yasuko with one of those glazed looks of hers, her mouth half-open. Only God could know what was going on in her head. Yasuko, noticing this, licked her fingers clean and ruffled Taiga's hair playfully. "Why is Taiga-chan looking at me like that?"

Taiga blinked herself back to reality, shook her head and smiled. "Nothing." And she enthusiastically mimicked Yasuko, using her fingers to pick a paprika from the plate and eating it.

Yasuko erupted into another peal of giggles and pulled Taiga into a tight embrace, pressing the tiny girl's face onto her chest almost to the point of suffocating her. "Like mother, like daughter!" she said proudly.

Ryuuji, who normally would have been irritated like hell, what with the two women in his life eating off his cooking with _unwashed _hands, surprisingly found himself smiling when he saw Taiga's lithe arms snake around Yasuko's waist, returning her hug.

The moment would have been absolutely beautiful, if Inko-chan hadn't suddenly spouted a very, very loud word that sounded suspiciously like "Fucker!" from beneath his cage cover.

Questions as to why Yasuko was out till noon, which Ryuuji had initially wanted to ask Yasuko, flew out the window when he felt a very angry vein pop on his temple.

"Oh, my!" Yasuko exclaimed, covering her mouth with a hand.

Taiga stiffened as she pretended she didn't hear anything lewd.

"Yasuko!" Ryuuji snarled. "What have you been teaching the bird while I'm not here?"

Yasuko gave him an innocent stare, then after a moment, squealed happily, clapping her hands together. "You _really _are a spitting image of your daddy! Do it again! Do it again!"

"Do _what _again?" Ryuuji demanded.

Yasuko's eyebrows started to wriggle weirdly. "The _'angry yakuza' _look, where your eyes get all, you know, _'angry-yakuza-looking' _and all that."

Ryuuji listened to her babble on about how his father looked cool when angry, and he tried to block out her voice by pretending to smile as he busied himself with preparing another serving of soup and rice for Yasuko. It was the first time in a span of a year did his mother once again point out how he looked so much like the father he never even knew.

He didn't like it.

In the corner of his eye, he could see Taiga peeking up at him from Yasuko's chest, another unreadable expression on that face of hers, so beautiful that it reminded him of the first time he had seen her sleeping.

This girl, who thought of doing everything on her own, and whose only means of communication was through dry sarcasm and violence, was now being embraced by a woman who had joked about her being her daughter.

Thoughts about his father melted into the background when Yasuko planted a kiss on Taiga's head. "Taiga-chan must be hungry. Let's eat before the food gets cold, or Ryu-chan will scold us." She stuck her tongue out playfully at Ryuuji.

And Ryuuji just couldn't find it in his heart to snap at her.

Because Taiga, in an attempt to imitate Yasuko again, had stuck her tongue out to him as well, and it was the cutest thing he's ever seen.

And not even the small red mark on Yasuko's neck peeking from under her collar could have ruined the moment.

* * *

**_TBC_**


	3. That One Step Forward

**Chapter Three:**

**That One Step Forward**

**

* * *

**

_~March 13~_

One of the defining traits Kushieda Minori had was her eccentric thinking. Another one was her annoying habit of facing anything that she didn't agree with her with denial. It was actually one of the biggest problems Ryuuji had a year ago when Taiga had decided to leave for her mother's house; having Kushieda look at him without frowning, scowling or growling. At first he'd thought Kushieda was being unsociable because Ryuuji had let Taiga go without a fight. He learned otherwise when Ami had bluntly told Ryuuji the truth.

"_She likes you. She's always liked you. But that idiot is the kind of person who values her friends more than her feelings,"_ Ami said when he asked her. That had been a few months after Taiga left. _"It's easier to avoid people you like than people you hate."_

When Ryuuji begged to differ, Ami had stared at him straight in the eye and said, _"Minori can't see ghosts… But there were moments in her life when she wished she did. And then you and Taiga became friends, and she just stopped believing altogether."_

"_Kushieda is afraid of ghosts,"_ Ryuuji had pointed out.

"_Only when Taiga is concerned."_

That was when Ryuuji had decided that Ami was just plain crazy. He didn't understand what she was saying, especially when she said:_ "What's sad about ghosts, you see, is that they don't care if you see them or not. They're just too busy being dead. Or in love with someone else."_

After that strange conversation with her, Kawashima Ami had left Oohashi with a bang.

_And_ a three-year contract for Nissen Fashion Magazine.

He'd seldom heard from her ever since, unless she wanted to send him a mobile phone picture of herself in a skimpy bikini, or a flowery little dress and dainty shoes.

And Ryuuji was left with an even more awkward Kushieda, and an unfamiliar wrenching feeling in his gut that suspiciously felt like guilt, marred with confusion.

That confusion grew even worse when a few weeks later Kushieda came knocking on his door wearing that ridiculous bald wig on her head, and a legal-sized piece of paper in her hand.

"_I got into Ninomae Institute!"_ No preambles. No greetings. Kushieda had simply waved the paper in front of Ryuuji's confused face.

"_Those college instructors wouldn't know what hit 'em!"_

Ryuuji believed her.

And what hostility Kushieda had expressed towards Ryuuji simply vanished, and she had started talking to him again.

And because Ryuuji was the kind of guy who always let everything slide off peacefully down the surface – because he was just too busy with matters of grave consequence – he let it rest as it was. But that was after convincing himself that women were creatures no man on earth could fully understand.

And that fact had never really bothered him much ever since.

Until now.

"Hey there, stranger," Kushieda said, popping up behind him and making him jump.

Ryuuji had been intent at staring at the bulletin board at Ninomae Institute's Human Resources Office that he didn't realize Kushieda had arrived.

"Ah… Good morning," Ryuuji said lamely as he stepped away from the bulletin board, unconsciously stepping away from Kushieda herself.

The year didn't change Kushieda much. She was just one of those girls who didn't lose or gain weight, and her strange way of thinking remained as crazy as it was back in high school.

The one noticeable change about her was her hair. It had grown considerably past her shoulders, and she kept it in a loose ponytail at the base of her neck.

"Easier to tie it back when wearing a baseball cap when it's this long," Kushieda had explained when Taiga asked a week ago when they met for dinner.

Kushieda smiled up at him toothily. "So you've decided to join forces with me in Ninomae Institute, eh? Wonderful, wonderful! By the time we both graduate, we'd have acquired intelligence enough to rule Japan together."

Ryuuji raised an eyebrow at her. "Rule Japan?"

"Yes. When we become rulers of Japan, we can finally make the citizens pay fifty percent more for taxes, and use that money to buy inflatable rubber duckies to replace the emergency airbags in automobiles all over the country."

Ryuuji, having to take about a full minute to digest what Kushieda had just said, tilted his head to the left, and asked, "Why would we want to do that?"

Kushieda gave him a shocked look, as if unable to understand _why _Ryuuji didn't get why rubber duckies were such a necessity. "_Why would we want to do that,_ he asks? Why, it's because rubber duckies are far more superior to emergency air bags, and I personally believe that they are cuter and more affordable. So what say? Join me in ruling Japan?"

Ryuuji scratched his neck uncomfortably. "Uhm, I'm only here for University Brochures…"

The disappointment was evident on Kushieda's face. "Drat. Oh, well. Here you go." She pulled out a fat envelope from her bag and handed it over to Ryuuji. "I also tucked in a few campus extra-curricular pamphlets in there. Oh, and an application form. You know, just in case you decide to enroll here and we can rule – "

"Thanks," Ryuuji said hastily, slipping the envelope under his arm and gestured around him. The semester wouldn't be starting until April, but Ninomae Institute was well packed with students in groups of twos or threes. "So, is anything going on today? Everything seems to be buzzing in here."

Kushieda nodded. "Ah, first day of orientation. The freshmen are assigned a sophomore to show them around campus. You know, to get the 'feel' of the place before the semester starts."

Ryuuji frowned as he watched the groups of students hurrying all over the place, the freshmen with their noses glued down a piece of yellow paper as if their lives depended on it, and the sophomores yapping away as he or she pointed at a certain building and explained what that was. Ryuuji wondered if Ninomae was so _disoriented_ that every student needed an orientation guide to show them around.

"How come you don't have an orientation guide?" Ryuuji asked.

"Ah, me? I don't necessarily need one. I worked in Ninomae's library part time back in first year, and pretty aware of what's going on campus. The guidance councilor insisted I still get an orientation guide, but I figured it would be more fun to find things out by myself."

It was as expected from Kushieda. Ryuuji could only smile ruefully as she stuffed a pinky finger in one ear.

"Ah, thanks for the brochures. My mom's been bugging me about college applications lately."

Kushieda peered up at him curiously. "You sound hassled."

"Do I?"

"Yeah. You sound like… I dunno… like someone who's being forced to do something he doesn't want to do."

Ryuuji was slightly taken aback by her observation. It was not the first time Ryuuji's taken Kushieda to be as perceptive. There had been several occasions in high school that she knew more than she ever let on. But it still caught him off-guard when she pointed out the obvious when he didn't even want her to.

Sensing she must have said something she shouldn't have, Kushieda awkwardly jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "Would you like to have a coffee with me? The campus cafeteria's open to outsiders today, and their caramel macchiato isn't half bad."

This got Ryuuji reeling even further. This has got to be the one single civil invitation Kushieda's offered in the span of a year since Taiga left. And Ryuuji wasn't certain at how to react to it. He had spent an entire year of High School loving this girl from afar. And in the later part of that year, he'd learned _she _had loved _him_, too. And what was so ironic about the whole situation was that Kushieda was the one who opened his eyes to what was really in his heart; and that was Taiga.

Yeah, it was one of those annoying turning points in a person's life when he discovers fate was just being a pain in the ass…

But he had been Kushieda's friend almost as long as he'd loved her. And so he guessed there just were certain things and circumstances that were too precious to let go.

Ryuuji nodded. "Coffee. That sounds wonderful."

* * *

It was around four in the afternoon when Ryuuji made it home. Yasuko was already dressed up and ready to go to work when he walked into the living room to find his mother feeding Inko-chan a lettuce leaf.

"Ryu-chan, welcome home," Yasuko said as she looked up and smiled at him. "How did you like Ninomae?"

Ryuuji sighed. Yasuko was happy to hear he had started scouting around for a college. It was nice to at least see her excited at something. He was starting to worry that she was overworking. If he really got his way with things, he'd love to have her get a day job instead. He hoped to god the male customers weren't harassing her. "I wouldn't know. I just went to get some brochures. Their cafeteria makes a great caramel macchiato, though. That, I can say." He handed Yasuko the envelope containing the brochures and his mother tore through it enthusiastically.

"My son's going to college!" Yasuko said in a sing-song voice as she successfully extracted the brochures from the envelope and laid them before her on the table, Inko-chan and the lettuce leaf momentarily forgotten as she started on flipping through the colorful pages. She would let out the occasional "Ohhhh!" or "Ahhh!" when she saw something interesting. She was looking mostly at pictures and was ignoring all the boring stuff that was written about it.

Leaving her in peace, Ryuuji looked around and noticed something was missing. "Isn't Taiga with you?"

Yasuko's blond head bobbed up, her eyebrows creasing. "I thought she was with Ryu-chan."

Ryuuji paused, rubbed his eyes tiredly and wandered into his room. He was relieved when he saw the curtains were pulled back in Taiga's room. Sliding the glass door leading to his balcony, he leaned on the rails and called out, "Taiga? I'm home. Are you there?"

There was a loud banging sound followed by a piercing howl of pain. Panic caught Ryuuji by the throat and he was about to climb over the rail to jump through Taiga's window when the girl's head appeared through it, looking absolutely forlorn. She was rubbing her head gently, and for some weird reason she had two coiled-up tissue papers shoved up her nose.

"Are you all right? What happened?" Ryuuji asked worriedly.

"I was cleaning," she said shortly, punctuated with a sharp sneeze, causing the tissue to fly out her nose and somewhere out of Ryuuji's sight.

Ryuuji looked at her in disbelief. "Impossible. I've made sure there's not a single speck of dust in your room yesterday. You can't – "

"I was shopping at the second-hand store downtown and I made a great haul today," Taiga said, as if that explained everything. She wiped her nose with the back of her hand and stepped away from the window. "See for yourself."

Ryuuji swallowed hard. What Taiga wanted to show him, he wasn't sure if he wanted to see. Despite his doubts, he stood on tiptoe and felt all the hairs at the back of his neck stand on end at the sight of Taiga's what used to be spotless room.

Clothes. Hundreds of pieces of clothing that ranged from skirts, shirts, pants. They covered ninety percent of Taiga's floor. Scattered here and there were stuffed toys, big and small. Some of them were sitting on her bed, some where rolling around on the floor.

"Wha-what happened? It was all right _just this morning!"_ Ryuuji wailed. He moved as if to run. "Stay there. I'm coming over to – "

"Don't come over here!" Taiga shouted as she pressed her nose with her thumb and forefinger. "I'll clean them up, I promise. I already have the boxes. This won't take long."

Ryuuji returned to stand by the rail, his hands itching at the desire to clean. "What are you up to?" It was not like Taiga to be shopping at second-hand stores. Nor was it like her to be cleaning up after herself.

"The new school year starts in April, and majority of the orphans I send Christmas presents to must need new clothes and toys so yeah… " Taiga explained, her face coloring a bit. She turned to Ryuuji angrily. "Don't make me explain to you why! It makes me feel really stupid."

Ryuuji couldn't help but smile at her and he leaned his elbows on the railing of his balcony. He couldn't help but look at his girlfriend lovingly. Taiga, he knew, was never gifted when it came to expressing her own feelings when she was complimented, and so Ryuuji knew better than to tell her that what she was doing was neat. Instead, he jerked his head back and said, "Would you like to have an early dinner with us before Yasuko leaves for work?"

Taiga sniffed a couple of times before sneezing again. She hurriedly shoved more tissue paper up her nose, then nodded. "'I'll be right there, then." And she started to climb her window sill clumsily.

Ryuuji backed away hurriedly. "Hey, that's dangerous. Use the front door when – "

Taiga let out a small yelp and made that giant leap she's done a few times in the past when she forgot her keys. Unsure of what to do, Ryuuji spread his arms wide and caught her easily, once again mesmerized at how light she was. He didn't even need to brace himself. He would have to do something about that. He swooped down to set Taiga on her feet but Taiga looped her arms around Ryuuji's neck and rested her chin on his shoulder, as a child would.

"If I catch you doing that again, I'll never make you dinner. _Ever_," Ryuuji scolded her as he adjusted his hold, sliding an arm under her knees.

Taiga laughed away his threat as she started getting quite comfortable. "I'll eat cup ramen, and then where would you be?"

Ryuuji cursed under his breath. "Cheat."

"Freak," Taiga countered.

Ryuuji squeezed her waist gently. "You've lost weight. You're too thin for my liking."

"Are you changing your mind about your marriage proposal then?" she asked quietly, hiding her face on his neck.

"You know I can't do that. You'd die without me."

Taiga swung her foot, trying to kick him but missing. "Idiot."

"Midget." It was Ryuuji's turn to counter.

Taiga laughed and was silent again. After a while, she said, "I spent all the money my father gave me on these clothes and toys, so I may have to be a parasite to you for a month if that's okay."

This made Ryuuji groan. He should have known there was a catch with Taiga being sweet like this and all. He nodded anyway. "For a month, you say? Well, your dad is sending you money every month, right?"

Taiga shook her head. "No. I don't want to accept any more financial help from him starting next month."

Ryuuji raised his eyebrows, pulled Taiga away from him and looked down at her face. She had that determined look that would have been very convincing if she didn't have tissue paper poking out of her nose. "Taiga, what are you talking about? What about the rent? Electricity and water bill? You know we would always love to have you over for meals but – "

"It's all right, Ryuuji," Taiga said as she sniffed several times before hugging his neck again. "I got me a job."

"Oh, okay."

Ryuuji blinked.

Taiga sighed.

The two of them were silent for a very long time before Ryuuji asked the overrated question.

"Wait. What?"

* * *

_**TBC**_


	4. The Desire to Be

**Chapter Four**

**The Desire to Be**

* * *

_~ March 21 ~_

Ryuuji found himself seeing less and less of Taiga for the last few days since she got her job. Every time he thought about it, the more he found it so unbelievable, especially when he'd end up ironing her uniform for her because he was too afraid to let her do it by herself and risk burning their house down.

Taiga had started working for a Daycare center in ten minutes away by subway. Much to Ryuuji's surprise, Taiga seemed to be enjoying herself. But she would always leave at around seven in the morning and come home at around eight in the evening looking dead and hungry. Another surprising thing about this turn of event was that Taiga didn't _complain_.

Not even once.

While Taiga would normally annoy Ryuuji to hell about something that didn't quite agree with her, lately all Taiga ever did was either sleep on it, or eat on it.

"How was work today?" Ryuuji asked her as he placed a cup of tea on the table before her. He had just gotten home from the family restaurant downtown with Kushieda. After that time with her in the coffee shop, the girl seemed to have lowered whatever defenses she had up between them, and had been more than willing to help him with the entrance exams schedules for the second semester in Ninomae. He hadn't expected to see Taiga already in the living room, waiting for him once he got home. She was usually curled up on a cushion, sleeping, once Yasuko left for work.

Taiga, who was busy untangling a knot form her long ponytail, shrugged her shoulders and said, "Long. Tiring. The boss sucks, but the children are amazing."

Ryuuji sat down across from her and rested his elbows on the table. Although he was almost ready to get used to this more mature, almost serene Taiga, he could not help but worry if she really was all right. She hadn't really explained to him the reason – or reasons – why she'd decided to get a job in the first place. She had, of course insisted it was because she didn't want to keep on accepting money from her father.

But Ryuuji didn't fall in love with this girl for her honesty.

It was because of her selflessness…

Which leads him to think that there was something else behind her sudden cry for independence.

"I can take care of you, you know," Ryuuji said quietly, making Taiga's fingers pause from their task of untangling her knot. "It'll take me a few years to get a degree but I promise you I'll make you happy. So…"

Taiga looked up at him slowly, those tired eyes slightly narrowed.

Ryuuji dropped his gaze down his own hands. It didn't take long before he started to feel ashamed with having let go of such a heavy promise so irresponsibly. He was _eighteen_. Who ever gave such promises at eighteen?

"I never doubted you, not even for a _second_, that you would make me happy. It never bothered me, the time. We both knew it would take longer than we planned. But it never bothered me. This job is just me being selfish," Taiga said softly, almost in a whisper.

Ryuuji scratched the side of is neck self-consciously. Lately, looking at Taiga's tired face had started to make him feel uncomfortable. The fact that he felt Taiga still seemed to keep certain things to herself was not helping, either.

Out of the blue, she had decided to stop accepting financial aid from her father and get a job without even consulting anything with him. It was so very Taiga to do so, but Ryuuji discovered that it annoyed him to find out at the last possible minute what his fiancé was planning, especially when would be too late to put a word in.

When Taiga had told him that she wasn't going to depend on her father's money, she'd already closed her bank account and opened a new one in a different bank. And when she'd confessed she found a job, it so conveniently happened that she would be starting work the _next day. _

Ryuuji tried to be patient with her; old habits, after all, were very hard to break, he knew. But it was starting to get pretty ridiculous.

"You're worrying again. You don't have to, you know," Taiga sniffed. Her face reddened as she savagely tore at the knot on her hair again, tangling it to the point of hopelessness. "I _can_ take care of myself. All you have to worry about is yourself, Ryuuji. Study hard and get into a college and graduate. That's what Ya-chan wants you to do. That's what _I _want you to do."

Ryuuji clicked his tongue against his teeth and crawled towards Taiga in annoyance. Taiga, for an instant, looked alarmed as he reached out to her, but relaxed when Ryuuji gently took her tangled pony tail into his hands and started working on it with nimble fingers. This was probably the first time in a long time Ryuuji was able to touch her hair. When he had first laid eyes on her, he had always thought she looked like a doll. And right now, as he combed his fingers through her light logs, he couldn't help but think if humans really were capable of being this delicate.

Taiga inched closer to him and rested her elbow on his knee as she leaned against his chest. "You should always do what your mother says. Mothers are always right, didn't you know?"

Ryuuji looked down at the top of Taiga's head as he gave the knot one final pull before it went loose, and he combed down her pony tail, tangle-free. "That's not true. Mothers can make mistakes, too. Yasuko, if she hadn't met my dad, she would have graduated high school. She could have gotten a good job. She could have met someone else who'd have treated her better. She made a mistake then, you know."

Taiga shook her head before looking over her shoulder to give him an unreadable look. "How can that be a mistake, when your mom and dad's meeting is the reason why you're here with me right now?"

Yeah, it was one of those moments when Taiga would say something horribly sweet that would cause all the blood to rush up Ryuuji's face. He turned away, rubbing his cheek with a shaky finger. "You're embarrassing me."

Taiga produced a noise that sounded something like a _'harrumph!'_ before pushing away from him to take a sip of her tea. "And here I thought it would be romantic to say." She winced at her tea cup before blowing at it slowly. "You sure know how to ruin a mood, stupid."

Ryuuji sighed as he leaned back on his knuckles and watched Taiga blow more at her tea cup. Taiga didn't have the skill to be _'romantic'_. Or at least he thought so. Most of the time, she communicated with Ryuuji by throwing in creative insults and otherwise uninspired comebacks. "I'm sorry. I know what you're trying to say. But I also know you're changing the subject. I can vaguely recall telling you to always let me in on what you're planning. Now why is it I have to find out about _this_ at the last possible moment?" He frantically waved at the uniform she was wearing.

Taiga sipped her tea leisurely. "Are you scolding me?" she asked, seeming genuinely curious.

Now, Ryuuji knew she was starting to mock him. Taiga knew his personality all too well. He shook his head. "I'm not scolding you. I'm just – "

"You're just being Ryuuji." Taiga replaced her tea cup on the table and raised an eyebrow at him. "And this is one of those _'because we're eventually gonna get married' _speeches of yours."

Dumbstruck for a few seconds before shaking himself out of it, Ryuuji reached out as if to touch Taiga's face, then grabbed the lobe of her left ear roughly, making her squawk in protest. "What do you mean by one of my _'because we're eventually gonna get married' _speeches? Is it too much to ask from you to at least include me in your plans regarding our future? I know you may not be used to confining with other people, but I don't think it's such a difficult task to tell me beforehand what you want to do. I'm not going to say no, or tell you not to do it otherwise." He let go of her ear, and she rubbed at it hastily. Ryuuji sighed. "Don't you trust me?"

"Don't _you _trust _me_?" Taiga snapped back.

Ryuuji was instantly taken aback. "I… no. I mean, yes, I trust you. But – "

"But you don't trust me _enough_ to make plans for myself?"

"That's not true – "

"Fine, Ryuuji." Taiga shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly before draining the tea in one gulp. "If I tell you mine, does that mean you'll tell me yours?"

"Eh?" If Ryuuji didn't know her any better, he'd have thought she was accusing him. There was a look in her eyes that he hadn't seen since high school. She had only used it on him when it concerned that _one person _he had thought to be his soul mate… But why now? "Of course I'll tell you. I see no reason not to."

She was now giving him her signature suspicious look, that look she reserved when she thought he was hiding ice cream in his freezer without telling her. Ryuuji tried his best to stare at her straight in the eye. After a few moments of silently glaring at each other, Taiga sucked in a sharp breath and let it out in a huff. "Okay."

Ryuuji blinked. "O-okay?"

"Yeah. Okay."

"… Okay what?"

"Just okay. Okay?"

That was when Ryuuji started getting annoyed. While he _did _appreciate Taiga's obvious effort in restraining verbally abusing him, he found communicating with her twice as hard as compared to an angry Taiga, who let him know what she was thinking straight out.

Taiga crossed her arms over her chest and said, "I'm moving out of my apartment and renting a cheaper one near the Daycare. I don't need that much space, and the rent's laughably affordable. I've put the down payment for it today and received the key. I'm moving in at the end of this month. _There_. I told you beforehand. Are you happy?"

Of course, it took a few seconds before what Taiga said finally sank in. Ryuuji's jaw dropped open. _"What?"_

"I'm moving – "

"I heard you the first time! But… the end of this month? That's… _that's ten days from now!"_

"Wow, thanks for pointing that out, genius." Taiga rolled her eyes. She picked up her empty cup and made her way to the kitchen to deposit it in the sink.

Ryuuji hurried behind her. "But – but _why _so far away?" he demanded, shuffling behind her like a mother hen.

Taiga was irritated as she whirled around to face him, arms crossed over her chest. "It's not _far away_. It's right next to my workplace. It's cheap, and it's available the moment I need it. Why are you looking at me as if I made a mistake? Personally, I'd thought it was a responsible decision."

"I'm not saying it's _irresponsible_…"

"Then _what_ are you trying to say, then?" Taiga challenged. Those tired eyes were looking at him, patiently waiting for his reply.

Ryuuji opened and closed his mouth, unable to spout out a good answer. He had been used to seeing Taiga anytime he wanted, being his next-door neighbor, that being ten minutes away by train seemed so relatively far away. He scratched his head shyly. "It'd be lonely without you…"

Taiga's hard expression softened a degree, and her tightly wound arms loosened and one tiny hand reached out to squeeze is pinky finger. She didn't say anything, as if knowing how much it took Ryuuji to admit that he had, in fact, grown attached to her. Deep down, Ryuuji felt a bit mad at her. He didn't understand why she was taking too many drastic steps to rid of the ties she had with her father, and why she had to end up drifting further and further away from him in the process.

"I want to be better," Taiga said quietly, giving him one more playful squeeze before letting go and leaning her elbows back on the sink. "I never really thought much about my future. It didn't matter to me if I got a job or whatever, because I knew my dad would always provide." She shrugged her shoulders. "Or at least I thought he was _entitled _to provide because he left me all alone and all that. But… yeah… "

Ryuuji never considered himself clingy in any sense of the word, but he did not know what made him reach out to take her hands into his and pulled her into a loose embrace. She automatically buried her face into his chest. "Why would you want to be better when you're fine just the way you are?"

"Because I _can _be," she muffled through his shirt. "I was never good at cooking, or cleaning and such. But I'm sure I can learn. And here you are, finally decided on a college. I feel like if I don't do anything, you'll leave me behind. And I don't want to get left behind."

Ryuuji tightened his arms around her. "I would _never _leave you behind. What made you think something so stupid?"

It took a while before Taiga could answer him, and when she finally did, she pulled back to look up at him accusingly, her eyes glassy as if about to cry. "Because you've been seeing another woman!"

Ryuuji looked back at her blankly for a full minute before bursting out laughing. "_Another woman?_ What on earth are you talking about?"

Taiga punched him in the gut, ceasing his laughter altogether and he ended up coughing violently. "Don't you deny it! You were with Minorin a week ago, and you were with her again today for lunch!" She tried to punch him again. Ryuuji dodged as he burst into another peal of laughter. Taiga being suspicious was one thing, Taiga being jealous was another.

It was actually kind of cute, though the basis of her jealousy was something he couldn't understand.

"I was with her last week because I needed some brochures of her college to show Yasuko. Admittedly we had coffee after. But this is _Kushieda_ we're talking about, Taiga."

"You used to like her," Taiga snarled as she made another attempt to scratch him with her nails.

Ryuuji leaped back into the living room, taking refuge behind the center table. This situation reminded him of the time when Taiga first broke into his house to retrieve the empty love letter she meant to give Kitamura in their second year in high school. Only this time, Taiga wasn't violently swinging around a Kendo Shinai. "That doesn't mean I like her now!" he protested.

Taiga lunged at him, and Ryuuji grabbed her by the wrists tightly, pinning both her arms at her sides. And as if driven by pure instinct, he kissed her. She froze in his grasp, and Ryuuji took this as an opportunity to pull her to him in another bear hug. He pressed his lips to her ear. "How can I like her, when I'm in love with you?" he asked hoarsely.

Taiga squirmed in his embrace, but Ryuuji wasn't about to let go. "You're an idiot for not noticing the most obvious of things," she said.

Unsure of what Taiga was talking about, he shook his head anyway. "I don't care. I don't even want to notice anything else." Suddenly, the way Taiga has been acting seemed all too clear to him; she was starting to get insecure. "You don't have to change for me. If you want to work, then so be it. If you want to learn, then I'll support you. But please don't do it because you think my feelings will change if you don't. Because they won't. All right?"

Taiga whimpered.

"_All right?"_ he asked again.

After a moment, Taiga nodded. And as if embarrassed at having this conversation with Ryuuji, she buried her face even deeper into his shirt. Ryuuji didn't understand what led Taiga to think that he still had feelings for Kushieda. They had been best friends all throughout high school, and he was sure that Taiga valued Kushieda even more than Ryuuji himself, and so Taiga suddenly acting like a jealous school girl because of coffee and lunch was beyond him.

"Are you sure you'll be all right living by yourself?"

Taiga let out a snort and finally found the courage to resurface from his shirt. "Are you telling me I can't survive by myself?"

Ryuuji gave her a knowing look.

Taiga blushed. "I can _so _survive by myself. And I'll prove it to you once I finally move out of my apartment."

Ryuuji smiled down at her. He knew better than to underestimate her. And he knew by first-hand experience that Taiga was still in the process of discovering her strengths and weaknesses as she's finally taken that one giant step to broaden her horizons – and social network – that was beyond Kushieda Minori.

But he couldn't help but feel that as Taiga's finally discovered she could make other friends, the friendship she's shared with Kushieda started to lose its novelty… He may be dense majority of the time, but it didn't have to take a genius to notice that Taiga and Kushieda hadn't been as close as they were back in high school. It was not as if Ryuuji was that kind of person to try extra hard to keep in touch with his friends back in Oohashi. He was one of those who knew that it was natural for people to grow apart at one time or another. He just didn't expect to see Taiga and Kushieda grow apart in front of his own eyes in a span of just a _year_…

He just hoped that _he_ had nothing to do with it…

He was snapped out of his reverie when he felt something small and cold press against his right hand. Looking down, he found a metal key with a monkey keychain attached to it. "What is this?"

Taiga's face reddened once again, and she started shuffling uncomfortably from one foot to another. "The spare key…uhm… to my new apartment."

That said, Ryuuji felt all the blood in his body rush to his ears as his eyes widened at the small object in his hand. The Taiga he knew was not very good at expressing intimacy in any way. He could remember how she had looked so scandalized a year ago when Ryuuji's grandparents had insisted the two of them sleeping in one room didn't really matter since they were going to get married anyway. And so Ryuuji knew that being handed a spare key to Taiga's apartment must have taken the tiny girl a lot of guts and a lot of thinking before she came to that decision. In front of him, Taiga had started fanning her face with one hand, her eyes darting from one place to another as if to avoid looking at him.

Ryuuji stuffed the key into his pocket before Taiga changed her mind. "Of course. You'd want me there once in a while to keep things in order. And cook you a meal or two, right?"

It was meant as a joke to lighten the mood, as Taiga looked like she was about to erupt into flames. What surprised Ryuuji was that Taiga didn't seem to get the joke. She shook her head. "No. I'd like to have you over once in while because… I'd be lonely, too." With that, she swung her fist in an attempt to give him a smack across the gut again, but Ryuuji caught it easily, pulled her fist near his lips and kissed her knuckles.

"I'll be there. Everyday, if you'll have me." And he loved it when she smiled shyly at him.

Yeah, it wasn't everyday that Taiga was romantic. But Ryuuji found that when she was, she went _all the way_.

* * *

**_TBC_**


	5. Weaknesses

**Chapter Five:**

**Weaknesses**

* * *

_~March 28~_

It did not take that much effort to vacate Taiga's apartment. Though the place was big, Taiga didn't let her things accumulate as opposed to what other people tend to do when given adequate enough space to live. Of course, it was not the first time Ryuuji had thought of the fact that the reason behind it was because his girlfriend never really considered this apartment as her _home_. A table here, a chair there. Whatever piece of clothing she had had been stuffed into the big cardboard boxes to be donated to the orphanage along with the rest of her shopping from garage sales and recycle shops. Said boxes were, at the moment, being hauled away by the Yamato Delivery service.

The only problem Ryuuji dreaded was how to move the insanely huge queen-sized bed Taiga had in her room.

"You don't need to bother," Taiga said uncaringly. Since all of her furniture had been moved the day before to her new apartment, she was sitting in the middle of the floor of her now bare apartment with the yellow pages balanced on one knee, the delivery papers creased at the corners as she tried to sign them with her crooked handwriting. "I asked the landlady if I could leave it behind. She said it's all right to leave the bed but she didn't need the mattress. I already asked the movers to bring it to the apartment along with the rest of the furniture tomorrow morning."

Ryuuji could only scratch his head as he sat down beside her on the floor. He watched her finish signing the papers with a flourish, then he pulled his mobile phone from the back pocket of his trainers. He had promised Yasuko to pick up her dry-cleaning later in the afternoon after helping Taiga with the move. It was already five in the afternoon. The cleaners close at six, and he still wanted to get the late discounts from the supermarket for some ground meat and vegetables.

"You're not going to make it if you just sit there and look at your mobile," Taiga said without looking up from the papers in front of her. "You've helped me enough through the whole week and everything's almost done, anyway. You should go."

Ryuuji looked up from his mobile and hesitantly stuffed it back into his pocket. He shook his head. "It's all right. I was hoping we could have dinner together. We can have anything you want."

Taiga, for the first time, looked up at him with an expectant look. The look vanished no sooner than it appeared. "I'm sorry. I still have a lot of things to do after this and I don't think you should wait up." She lowered her head back down.

Ryuuji bit the inside of his cheek, watching her continue to look at a certain spot on the paper, doubting that she was reading at all. He knew that she was trying to get rid of him. Whatever the reason was, he didn't know. And he doubted she was going to tell him if he nagged about it. He decided to ask her, anyway. "Are you hiding something from me again?"

Taiga's eyebrows furrowed into an annoyed _'V'_ as she cast Ryuuji another look. "I'm not _hiding_ anything from you. I just know you have errands to do, and I perfectly understand it. You should really be thanking me, sheesh. And here I thought men love their women when they don't monopolize."

"And I thought women loved men when they try to be a gentleman."

"We do. And I'm really happy you helped me out. But I'm fine. Really."

Of course, it was not everyday Ryuuji tried to assess his own personality, but every time Taiga would initiate a parting, he would always have a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. The reason behind it was simple enough. A year ago, a day after they've found out they loved each other, Taiga had disappeared without a trace leaving but a note to ease his worries. Ryuuji knew deep down that he was scared Taiga would pull a stunt like that again. And with the drastic changes his fiancé was making here and there, he just didn't know what to expect from her as of late.

"Then, at least join me for dinner? We can meet up after… err… whatever it is you have to do."

Taiga didn't answer at once, but instead took her time to place the yellow pages on the floor and smooth out the creases on the documents. "My dad is coming over tonight to sign the lease termination papers for me. I really didn't want him to have anything to do with the move, but the rental agreement's under his name."

Ryuuji's eyes narrowed. "He's coming? _Tonight?"_ The uneasy feeling throbbed slightly in his gut.

Ever since he'd known Taiga, nothing good had come out of dealing with Mr. Aisaka Rikurou. Although Ryuuji had heard very little of the disappointments the man had brought Taiga, he knew enough of it when the man had broken a promise he had made with Taiga back in high school. And Ryuuji wasn't just talking about the school fair. The man had actually promised Taiga that they would once again live together, like family. Ryuuji didn't really know Taiga's true feelings about it, but he had seen enough to decide for himself that Mr. Aisaka was nothing more than a liar who changed his feelings at a drop of a hat. Much worse was that he thought money could buy everything, even his daughter's happiness.

And right now, Taiga trying to break away from her father's hold on her proved that she had had enough of his capriciousness.

"Maybe," Ryuuji started. "Maybe I should stay here with you then. Just in case… you know… "

Taiga's eyes shifted to his face, and the hard expression softened a bit. "Thank you. But no. I need closure. I need this."

"But – "

"If I don't do this by myself, I don't think I would ever be able to finally severe the ties." Taiga reached out to him and Ryuuji clasped his hands with her tiny ones. "All right?"

Ryuuji couldn't say he was absolutely comfortable with the idea, but Taiga was earnest, and he could only agree with her when she was this convicted. "All right. I understand."

She gave him a small smile. "Good. I'll try to make it to dinner, but I'm not making any promises. My father could be a… yeah, a pain…"

Ryuuji squeezed her hand before reaching out and wrapping his arm around her shoulders loosely. She tried to resist but he tightened his embrace and pulled her to him. "If you need anything, I'm a phone call away. All right?"

"Fine, fine. I get it. Now get out of here. Remember; Ya-chan's dry-cleaning?" Taiga shrugged his arms off of her shoulders and shooed him away.

Ryuuji sighed in defeat as he finally nodded and stood up, brushing his bottom lightly. "All right, all right. I get it, you don't want me here. I can take a hint." He bent down and dropped a light kiss on top of her hair, which she brushed away, embarrassed. "I'll see you tonight, if not tomorrow morning, then."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Now get out of here," Taiga said, laughing.

Ryuuji shook his head ruefully as he made his way to the door. He turned around again, his hand half-way to the doorknob. "Maybe I should really – "

"Get. Out."

* * *

After having been practically thrown out of Taiga's old apartment, Ryuuji had efficiently picked up Yasuko's dry-cleaning and bought from the fifty-percent sale corner from the supermarket several blocks away from his house. Now, with the vinyl-wrapped clothes slung over his back and a bag of groceries in his other hand, Ryuuji lazily strolled down the darkened alley towards his neighborhood.

And that was when he saw her.

It was hard to miss that tall, slim figure standing right under a street light. She was wearing a white dress and heels, and her long, blue-black hair usually freely cascading down her back was pulled back in a single messy plait over one shoulder.

"Kawashima?" Ryuuji called out to her in surprise. Stopping dead in his tracks, caught unaware of the sight in front of him, he didn't know what else to follow that preamble.

And it was indeed Kawashima Ami. She looked up when she heard him and her face broke into a happy smile. "Hey there, stranger." She gave him a small wave and she started to walk towards him. Ryuuji noticed she had a small purse in her left hand and she was swinging it leisurely from side to side.

"Wow, it's been a while. How have you been?" Ryuuji greeted as Ami stopped a few feet in front of him, tucking her arms behind her daintily.

"Yeah, I know. Everything's good. We've finished the summer photo shoot for Nissen just yesterday. It doesn't get busy until fall, so the manager let me have the month off."

"Ah, I remember you saying something about that in one of your e-mails. I saw your spring magazine, by the way. Taiga had a copy of it. You were in the front cover, wearing that yellow dress."

Ami lowered her chin a fraction and watched him from underneath those thick eyelashes of hers. Ah, so that was what was so different with her look; she wasn't wearing any makeup. "You remembered what I was wearing?"

Ryuuji laughed good-naturedly. "Yeah. It looked really good on you. Kushieda also commented on it a while back, saying they can stuff you in a barley sack and you'd still look good. But don't tell Kushieda I told you."

Ami bit her lower lip gingerly, and the left side of her mouth turned up into a half-smile. "You've been seeing her. Minori, I mean."

Ryuuji nodded. "I was thinking of joining her at Ninomae. I actually like the curriculum for the second semester."

Ami's eyebrows raised a few inches above her forehead. "And Aisaka-san is fine with that?"

"Yeah. Why shouldn't she be?"

Ami made a clicking sound with her tongue as she shook her head. "You never change, do you. Takasu-kun?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ryuuji asked defensively. He was never really talented at deciphering Ami's way of thinking. She always said things in the form of riddles and never spoke what she thought of straight-out. Ryuuji had always found it annoying and frustrating.

"Nothing, nothing. Of course you'd never change. You're _you_ after all." Ami tilted her head to the left and said, "I dropped by your house, but no one was home so I went to Aisaka-san's apartment."

"Ah, what did she say?"

"I wasn't able to catch her. She left with an old man. Her father?"

The gut-wrenching feeling erupted in the pit of Ryuuji's stomach instantly. "Yeah. Taiga's moving house and she said her father's coming over to sign the lease termination papers."

"Is that so?" Ami mused. "Why is she moving?"

"It's a long story. But – oh, where are my manners? You must be tired, right? I was about to go home and make dinner." He waved the bag of groceries in front of him. "If you're not doing anything, care to join me? Taiga could be joining us later."

"_Could be_?"

Ryuuji shrugged uncomfortably. "Her father, he could be a pain," he said, using Taiga's exact choice of words about her father.

Ami nodded in understanding. "I know…"

Ryuuji remembered that Ami had been there when Taiga's father had inadvertently stood her up in front of the whole high school. She was in fact one of the few who knew about her desire to please her father by letting Taiga play the lead role. It had been a shame Taiga wasn't even able to do so in the end. Her father never showed. "Anyway, she said she'll try to make it. I'm sure she'd love to see you."

"I doubt that, but your home-made dinner is tempting me. I've heard your cooking isn't half bad."

Ryuuji had no idea where she'd heard about his cooking, but he decided not to ask. And fifteen minutes later found Ryuuji in his flowery apron rummaging around in the kitchen with Ami sitting on a cushion on the floor drinking honey pickled kumquat juice. He would look over his shoulder once in a while to make sure her glass was never empty, and each time he checked, she was looking at him observantly, her elbow resting on the table, chin in one hand, a grin on her tiny lips. And every single time he'd noticed she was staring, it made his swallow nervously, feeling like a goldfish in a bowl. Unfortunately, much to Ryuuji's inconvenience, the whole thirty minutes allotted for making curry was spent with Ami watching his every single move, and by the time he had set plates of rice for the both of them, he was completely – in so many different levels of the word – drained.

"This is good. Delicious," Ami said in between tiny spoonfuls of curry and rice, each bite punctuated with a light pat of a lacy handkerchief in the corners of her mouth.

Small talk flowed easily between them, where Ami desperately tried to avoid anything that concerned her work. Instead she kept swerving the conversation towards Ryuuji and several other things in between. In the end, he had talked about Taiga and Minori and bits and pieces of Yusaku, and in return heard about how Ami missed high school.

"Excuse me, can I use the bathroom?" Ami said a few minutes after she had finished with her meal.

"Sure. It's right through there." Ryuuji pointed to the direction of the kitchen and Ami giggled as she tiptoed away.

Ryuuji used the time she was away to clean up the table and set a plate of bean paste manju in its stead, along with a new pot of tea. He had finished preparing the dessert several minutes before Ami returned.

When Ryuuji looked over his shoulder to announce he'd prepared something sweet, he was surprised to see Ami's eyes slightly red and puffy. Oh, he hoped to God she hadn't been crying in his toilet. Crying girls were never his cup of tea.

Ami laughed when she saw his worried expression. "No, no. My contacts are just annoying the heck out of me. Sorry."

Ryuuji didn't respond as he watched her return to her place across the table. She instantly took a huge gulp of her tea and wiped her mouth with the handkerchief before giving the plate of manju a nod. "That looks good. Can I have one?" She reached out as if to pluck a manju from the plate.

Ryuuji's hand snapped and instantly grabbed her thin wrist. He could feel the bone protruding from the joint as he squeezed hard. Ami let out a startled yelp.

"If you don't want me to have them, why even bother bringing them out?" Ami asked, annoyed as she tried to pull her hand free.

"I don't mind letting you have them, only if you don't put it to waste," Ryuuji said quietly.

Ami looked at him confused. "What?"

Ryuuji gave her a bland look. "Don't underestimate a guy who's lived all his life with a woman whose looks dictate her job. My mom's had this phase in her life once or twice when she thought she was getting too… _fat._"

The look of naked shock was evident in Ami's eyes as they started to dart everywhere but Ryuuji's face. "I don't know what you're – "

"You can eat the manju if you promise me you won't throw up afterwards," Ryuuji interrupted and he let go of her wrist almost instantly.

Ami gave him a leveled look, as if daring for him to say it again. This was not the first time he had suspected Ami's weird eating habits. Back in high school there had been a few occasions he had seen her sneaking out of a convenience store carrying a plastic bag full of junk food, and that was after bragging to her friends at school that she _'ate healthy'_. He was not unfamiliar with these weird habits. Yasuko had been a living example of the perfect perfectionist, until Ryuuji had learned to make low-calorie dishes that pleased his mother enough to make her eat. He was not about to back down in a stare challenge with a girl who had just thrown up his curry.

Ami was the first to look away, but her hands never strayed towards the plate of manju.

Ryuuji sighed. He had a feeling this was going to be a very, very long night.

* * *

**_TBC_**


	6. Failed Confrontations

**Chapter _Six:_**

**_Failed Confrontations _**

* * *

_~March 28~_

Aisaka Taiga's head was aching. This seldom ever happened. It only did when she had to deal with her father. The man, bless him, was making things more complicated than they really were, and Taiga just did not have the time nor the stamina to put up with him. It was already seven in the evening, and Taiga wanted to go home.

Aisaka Rikurou tapped the fat envelop sitting on the table next to his glass of water and for the third time that hour slid it towards Taiga and said, "Take it. It's yours."

This time, instead of pushing the envelop back, Taiga decided to just ignore it altogether. She picked up her water and sipped leisurely. It was so much like her father to be this stubborn. Now she knew where she had gotten her most undesirable trait.

Mr. Aisaka sighed impatiently. "Why are you being difficult? You and I both know that you need the money. Just swallow your pride and accept it, like you always do."

Taiga slammed her glass back onto the table, sloshing a bit of water on her hand. This, too, was so like her father to act so high and mighty. It annoyed her to death. Taiga lazily let her eyes wander to her father's face. The years weren't very kind to the man. The deep lines in the corners of his mouth showed he hadn't been smiling a lot lately, if at all, and the way he rubbed his temple nervously said he was just as uncomfortable with this setting as Taiga was.

It was obvious he was not used to begging.

_Damn you._

Taiga wiped her wet hand on her pant leg. She was this close to getting mad, and she did not like getting mad at her father; getting mad at him required a lot of energy, which she just did not have at the moment. And even if she did, it would be too precious to waste on this man. "I don't need it. I can manage without you."

This surprised Mr. Aisaka, but he recovered quickly and shook his head. "I don't understand you. Why can't you just allow your old man to do what he can for his daughter?"

Taiga felt her head throb again and although she had convinced herself she could do this, she was starting to believe that whatever understanding she thought she had with this man had dissolved in the air in the past year when she hadn't been looking. She pounded her fist on the table, this time nearly toppling her glass altogether. "The fact that you're talking as if this is all about pride or about money is the exact reason why I didn't want to see you in the first place. Everything isn't about pride and money!"

Mr. Aisaka grabbed the envelop and tried to toss it at Taiga's lap. Taiga swatted it away. It fell flat on the seat right next to her. She ignored it again.

"If this isn't about _my _money or _your _pride, then what else is it about?" Mr. Aisaka demanded.

Taiga took a deep breath and counted to ten. This had been the way she dealt with stress lately. When she finished counting, she smiled dryly at him. "Has it ever occurred to you that it could be about what _I _feel, and what _I _want?"

Mr. Aisaka was evidently taken aback, and for a moment looked like he didn't know what to say. He recovered quickly. "Then what is it you want?"

Taiga paused, honestly surprised. Not at his father, but at herself.

_What do I want?_

Hadn't she asked herself this before? Ah, yeah. It was a year ago, when their homeroom teacher asked them to fill up those stupid career assessment forms for graduation.

_I wanted to be born into a normal family, then raised as a normal good girl, then have a normal encounter with a guy and become friends normally. I had wanted to fall in love normally like that._

Those had been her words to Ryuuji. That had been the first time she had actually voiced out what she wanted, what she _had _wanted.

Taiga closed her eyes and leaned back in her seat. She was anything but normal, and the conditions were already against her the moment she was born. "What I want, huh?" She opened her eyes only to look out the window.

Mr. Aisaka shook his head and laughed softly. "Psh! What am I thinking, asking an eighteen-year-old what she wants when she doesn't even know what she needs."

Taiga began counting to ten again. When she was done, she turned to her father and handed over the envelop full of money to him. "I don't need your money and I don't give a care what you think about me. So you can take this back and you can leave me alone. Now if you'll excuse me," she drawled, trying her best to keep the snarl from her voice. Standing, she swung her bag over her shoulder and moved to leave.

Her father grabbed her hand. Taiga shook him away.

"Where are you going? Stop making a scene!" he scolded her.

"I don't care!" Taiga shouted. The people in the restaurant dining with them turned their heads towards them, disapproving looks on their faces. Taiga ignored them all.

Her father apologetically bowed his head at them all. "So sorry! So sorry!"

Taiga looked at her father angrily. "That's enough! Do you know what I want? I'll tell you what I freaking want! I want to start my life over, this time the right way. The _normal _way!" She turned away and added, almost to herself, "And now that I've found that person who's given me hope that there is a possibility in achieving that…"

"You're attracting too much atten – "

"It's all your fault! You wanted to force money I didn't even want! You insist on sticking your neck into _my _business, into _my _life, In which you have no authority whatsoever!"

"I am your father! I have very much the authority you deny me, and if it weren't for me, you – "

"Shut up!" Taiga screamed. _"__Shut __up, __shut __up, __shut __up!__" _She whirled on the balls of her feet. She was out of the restaurant and into the streets, running blindily. She could hear her father calling after her. She didn't care. Not even when she ran straight into someone else.

They rolled into the ground with protests from the other person.

Taiga scuttled to a sitting position, away from the person she had collided with and gathered the contents of her bag that had spilled onto the sidewalk. When her hands fell on top of a slightly crumpled piece of paper she soon discovered to be the lease termination form her father was supposed to sign, she crumpled it in one hand and pounded her fists on the pavement.

"Shit! Shit, shit, shit!" Taiga cursed, each word punctuated with a punch to the ground.

"Taiga?"

Taiga's head snapped up wildly, only to find Kushieda Minori kneeling a few feet away, hands poised in front of her as if unsure of what to do.

"Taiga," the girl started again. "Are you all right?" She slowly, warily reached out to her as if approaching a scared, wild animal.

But come to think of it, that was how Minori had been treating her as of late. That is, _when_ she decided to see her at all. Ever since Taiga returned from her mother's place, this was the third time she had had an encounter with her friend. And each time, she had been distant. Back in high school, after a bad day like this, Minori would have been a sight for sore eyes, but right now…

Taiga stuffed her belongings into her bag, along with the – unsigned – termination form. "I'm fine. I'm sorry I tackled you like that."

"Oh, it's not as if I'm not used to getting tacked by you," Minori said as the two of them clumsily stood up, dusting each other down. "So, where's the fire?"

Taiga blinked up at her owlishly. "The fire?"

"You were running away from something?"

Taiga clutched her back to her chest when she remembered what had made her run away from the restaurant. She looked over her shoulder just in time to see her father exit the restaurant, looking left, then right. Looking for her…

Out of instinct, Taiga grabbed Minori's hand and pulled her into a dark alley beside the restaurant, out of sight.

Minori flattened her back against the wall of the building, her right hand poised like a gun. She was peeking ever so slightly into the open. "Hah! So tell me, detective Aisaka, who is under our surveillance this time?" she asked dramatically.

Taiga also leaned against the wall, suddenly finding standing up so hard to do. "My dad."

"Your…" Minori said, her voice trailing away and her hand lowering as she turned to Taiga. "You met with your dad?" she asked in disbelief. The girl touched Taiga's shoulder gently, hesitantly. _"__Why?__"_

Taiga ran the back of her hand over her forehead, feeling faint. "I want to find the answer to that question myself." She felt her legs give from under her and she slid lower down the wall. "I shouldn't have come." She had her eyes closed but Taiga knew Minori was looking at her with disappointment; her friend had never agreed with Mr. Aisaka before. And for good reason. Shaking her head, Taiga faced Minori and asked. "What about you? What are you doing here, Minorin?"

Minori gave her a toothy grin. One would have thought nothing was wrong between them. "Part-time job. Coincidentally, in this restaurant." She looked down at her watch. "Ah, and I'm already three minutes late."

Taiga scratched her head. "Sorry. You should go. I don't want to get you fired or anything."

Minori gave her a lingering look, and for a moment Taiga saw something glimmer in her eyes. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to get rid of me." She smiled sadly.

Taiga frowned, then shrugged the hand Minori had on her shoulder. "You've been doing that to me lately. Ever since I got back, you've been avoiding me."

And Taiga had hoped Minori would protest – or even just lie – that what Taiga said was not true. Instead, Minori diverted her gaze, lowered her head and smiled sadly. Taiga wondered why.

"I have to go," Minori said, standing up.

Taiga surrendered to gravity and fell sitting down on the dirty pavement of the alley. She didn't care. She buried her face into her knees. "Then go."

"Will you be all right? Maybe you should call Takasu to come pick you up."

"I'll be fine. I can take care of myself."

That comment was followed by an uncomfortable silence, then footsteps going out of the alley. Minori didn't even bother to say goodbye. But Taiga guessed she deserved that. She, after all, was not good at saying goodbyes herself.

Taiga felt like crying, and she knew she should be.

It was strange. The tears wouldn't come.

* * *

Ryuuji again bit back the groan that had been threatening to escape his lips for the past hour. There were only a number of times he had been left alone with Kawashima Ami, and majority of those times had been uncomfortable silences. And if t hey weren't uncomfortable silences, they would be word games Ryuuji could never win.

Right now, Kawashima was leaning on the rails of the veranda of their living room, holding a cup of warm tea in her hands. She had been there for the past half-hour. Yes, this was one of those silences he was never good at handling.

"You should really step inside," Ryuuji said, coming in from the kitchen carrying a clean towel to wipe off the center table. He noted the manju – untouched – still sitting in the middle of it, and he looked over at the girl in the veranda. "Did you hear me, Kawashima?"

Ami looked over her shoulder. Ryuuji noticed she had undone her messy plait and her hair now hung down her back. Now that she had her hair down, Ryuuji noticed that she had grown it past her waist. And as always, it suited her. Everything suited Kawashima Ami. Ryuuji frowned. For someone who was already naturally beautiful, he wondered why she still had to try too hard.

"You were always protective of the girls around you, Takasu-kun. Back in high school, you always thought that it was your job to be the father. You sound like my father right now," she said as she stepped inside and closed the sliding door to the veranda. She settled back on the cushion across Ryuuji and sighed wearily.

So it all comes down to this. From uncomfortable silence to word game. It was the proper order of conversation with Kawashima. Ryuuji dragged the towel over the table. He took time wiping some spots where they had placed their glasses of kumquat juice. "I should say the same to you. You always spoke in riddles I could never understand. I just wish you'd say what you want to say straight-out, so that I could at least defend myself."

Kawashima placed the cup of tea on the table and raised her hands in front of her defensively. "I'm not attacking you. No need to defend yourself."

Ryuuji stared at the cup in irritation. He had just wiped that spot. Trying to fight the urge to raise the cup and wipe the table again, he placed the towel on his knee and turned to Ami. No more skirting his questions. He might as well ask bluntly. "You weren't told by your manager to have the season off, were you?"

Kawashima tilted her head slightly and watched him with those big, dark eyes of hers. It took her a while to answer, but at least she didn't use her riddles to answer this time. She smiled weakly at him. "He – my manager – wanted me to get professional help. That was after he found out I waste the food he buys me. I told him I was fine, but he told me he'd refuse job offers for modeling if I don't seek therapy." She laughed. She laughed as if it were a laughing matter. "I was blackmailed."

Ryuuji stared at her seriously. "You're lucky you have such a caring manager. You should respect his decisions and get that help he wants you to get as soon as possible."

Kawashima shook her head. "Again with the father sermon."

"I'm not trying to sermon you. And will you quit on the father thing?"

"Sorry, sorry. That's why I came back; I have sessions with a therapist three times a week for four months, so I'll be around the neighborhood for a while." Ami started fiddling with the ends of her hair, not meeting his gaze. "Maybe… we could get together some time. When you're not busy…"

An invitation. Lately, he's been getting a lot of those. From women who weren't Taiga… He ran a hand through his hair and rubbed his eyes tiredly. Where was Taiga, anyway? "Sure. That sounds all right."

And they were back to that uncomfortable silence. Again.

"You don't have to concern yourself with this, you know," Kawashima suddenly spoke.

"You just threw up my food. How I can not be concerned?"

"I'm getting help, right? Isn't that a good thing?" she reasoned.

Ryuuji did not know what else to say. He looked at the wall clock and saw it was already past eight. Taiga was still not home. He pulled out his mobile from his back pocket and checked for any messages he might have missed. There were none. He started to type down a message for Taiga.

"I wonder, Takasu-kun," Kawashima said distractedly as she leaned her elbows on the table. "how Taiga would react when she sees me here."

Ryuuji looked up from his mobile and gave Kawashima a confused look. "She would be happy to see you. It's been a while since you've dropped by." He busied himself with his text and put down the phone on the table after sending his uninspired message. He knew Taiga wasn't going to reply. She never did when he asked private questions through texting.

Kawashima giggled half-heartedly and she started tracing lazy circles on the table. "You amaze me with your denseness, daddy. But I'll forgive you for it if you promise not to tell Aisaka-san why I'm here."

Ryuuji tried to ignore the daddy comment and sighed. "It's not for me to tell, but anyway I don't think she'll be coming tonight. It's already late."

Kawashima took that as the dismissal that it was, and she stood up, smoothing out the skirt of her white dress. "I should be going, then."

Ryuuji followed suit. "I'll walk you to the station. It's the least I can do."

Kawashima gave him a one-sided grin as they made their way to the door. "I can take care of myself, you know."

Ryuuji bit back the groan once again. "Sounds like something Taiga would say. She's been desperate for liberation lately."

Kawashima paused in the act of putting her shoes on, and she turned to face Ryuuji with that unreadable look she would use on him every time they were alone together. She placed a gentle hand on his chest, and said something that might have sent him reeling, if he weren't Ryuuji. "If I sound like Taiga, then maybe you'd learn to love me as much?"

But of course, he was Ryuuji and he was just too stupid – or too kind – to give any meaning to it. "You're so funny, you're killing me," he said dryly.

Kawashima, for a brief moment, looked annoyed. The expression was gone the moment it came, and before Ryuuji knew it, she was leaning in and pressing a kiss on his cheek. She leaned even further and whispered in his ear, "Good night, Takasu-kun."

Ryuuji felt all the blood rush to his face, and in an instant didn't know what to do. What were eighteen year olds supposed to do when super models kiss them and whisper seductively in their ear?

And of course, Taiga had to pick that perfect moment to open the door.

Kawashima looked over her shoulder, and, as if nothing out of the ordinary happened, slipped on her shoes and turned to Taiga cheerfully. "Hey there, small stuff."

Taiga stood there in the doorway with an unreadable expression on her face, her eyes shifting from Kawashima to Ryuuji and back again.

Ryuuji, suddenly noticing the heavy tension in the air that had fallen before them, smiled at Taiga nervously and said, "Finally. We've been waiting for you."

Taiga's large amber eyes narrowed into slits. "Yeah, I'm sure you were." And with one smooth motion she slammed the door in their faces. Ryuuji could hear her pummeling down the metal staircases.

Kawashima stood there dumbfounded for a brief moment before she turned to Ryuuji worriedly. "I think she was a bit angry."

Ryuuji fell down on his haunches in frustration and he buried his face in his hands. That had to be the understatement of the decade. He stood up in a hurry, slipped into his shoes and ran out the door in a hurry, barely hearing Kawashima protesting behind him about coats and locking the door.

* * *

_**TBC**_


	7. Her Hand

**Chapter Seven:**

**Her Hand**

* * *

_~March 28~_

Taiga panted against a street lamp, feeling like the lowest living organism in the planet. The truth was she didn't even know if she ran away from Ryuuji again out of disappointment, or out of habit. It was not like she hadn't seen him and Ami alone together in his house before. Or was it _because_ she had seen him and Ami alone together in his house before that made it so… so…

So _what?_ They weren't doing anything wrong. Damn it, she didn't even know _why _Ami was there. Or _since when _she had been there.

She looked down at her hands, one of which was still clutching the lease termination form. The _unsigned_ lease termination for. The sight of it reminded Taiga of the failure that was today. Her dad talking to her like that, Minori never really admitting but never really denying the fact that she had been ignoring Taiga lately. Then Ami leaning in so close to Ryuuji and whispering something in his ear like a lover.

She pushed herself away from the street lamp, slightly a bit angry at herself. She had run away from him again. She had told herself many times she was going to stop running, but then here she was, under the light of a street lamp in front of a closed boutique in the middle of a deserted street. What time was it? Will she be able to catch a train home?

Damn it all. She had promised herself she would try to face her problems. Now she knew why she had spent most of the eighteen years running. It was just so much easier to run.

_Or maybe she just wanted someone to run after her…_

She snapped out of her reverie when she heard a set of running footsteps from the alley she had burst out from and was not surprised when she saw Ryuuji catapult into the open street, the tension around those mean-looking eyes of his was evident even from this distance.

Ryuuji nearly stumbled when his eyes fell on Taiga. "God! There you are!" he said in obvious relief as he made his way towards her, panting and clutching his side painfully. It was apparent he had been sprinting. "Why'd you run away? Ami was waiting for you all afternoon."

Taiga instantly tasted something sour in her mouth. _All afternoon? _So Ami had been with Ryuuji _all afternoon?_

"Ah!" Ryuuji suddenly exclaimed, and Taiga noticed that it was because she had taken a hesitant step back. "Don't you _dare _run away again! Stay where you are."

She did not know what made Taiga listen to that order, especially when she would just normally brush him off and do what she felt like doing, anyway. She clutched the crumpled paper in her hands angrily and refused to meet his eyes when Ryuuji finally made to stand a foot in front of her.

They stood there in uncomfortable silence for a while before Ryuuji decided to break the ice.

"Have you eaten dinner?" he asked timidly.

Taiga bit the insides of her cheek. She had but a glass of water when she met with her father. She was not hungry, and so she nodded her head. If she didn't lie, Ryuuji would have thrown a fit about missing meals and the value of a kilocalorie and something stupid like that. Then he would have dragged her to his place and stuffed her face with whatever he could put together in five minutes.

Ryuuji shifted from one foot to another. He looked like he was testing the waters, and strangely didn't have anything to say to her.

She did not know why it annoyed her, the fact that he was just watching her, his arms loosely at his sides and fingers twitching, as if prepping himself to lunge out to her if she suddenly made a run for it again. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Well?" she started, daring him to say something with her eyes. He looked worried. He always looked worried when he was looking at her. That in itself bothered her a lot.

Ryuuji blinked at her. "Well, what?"

"Aren't you going to start your lecture with a diplomatic preamble? Like, _'how was your meeting with your father?'_ or something like that?"

Ryuuji paused, his eyes never leaving her. "Why would I have to ask that when it's obvious it didn't turn out well?" He reached out and tentatively touched her shoulder.

Taiga shrugged his hand away. "I was expecting it to be a disaster to begin with," she said defensively. "Meetings with my father always turn out that way, anyway. I'm used to it."

"If you're so used to it, then why do you look so angry that it didn't turn out fine?"

Taiga narrowed her eyes at him. He did not look the least bit intimidated with her attitude. _He _was used to _her_. She turned away. "I'm just tired." Ryuuji did not have to know that she had bumped into Minori along the way, which had officially proven that their friendship had changed. Ryuuji didn't even have to know that she did not like the fact of coming home to see Ryuuji and Ami alone together.

"It's been a long day, with the packing and the move," Ryuuji said. "I didn't even know it was going to take you all night."

It was so much like Ryuuji to believe her instantly, that for a split-second she actually felt guilty. At the same time, it frustrated her. The guy had no idea whatsoever that Ami had been romantically attracted to him since senior high. But perhaps it was better that he remained oblivious of those things.

Jealousy was always a bad excuse to waste ones energy. Taiga, suddenly feeling drained from everything that happened that day, sighed and said, "In the end, I didn't get him to sign this." She gestured with her hand that held the crumpled form.

Ryuuji looked down at the thing clutched between her fingers. "You crumpled it into a ball?" It was obvious in his face that it was bothering him.

Taiga shrugged uncaringly. "It doesn't matter."

A muscle under Ryuuji's left cheek twitched. To him, wrinkled documents mattered. _Anything wrinkled _mattered. "Aren't you supposed to hand that over to the agent tomorrow?"

"I wasn't able to ask him to sign, what do you want me to do about – hey!" Taiga let out a wail when Ryuuji suddenly grabbed the wrist of the hand that held the crumpled paper. His other hand had flipped his mobile phone from his back pocket and was pounding on the keys grimly.

"Wha-what are you doing?" Taiga demanded as she tried to pry her wrist from his grasp. Unfortunately, Ryuuji was strong when he wanted to be, and his long fingers didn't even budge. A bit angry for being manhandled like this, she swung her leg to give Ryuuji a kick on the shin.

Ryuuji dodged it, uncharacteristically quiet as he placed his phone against his ear.

Taiga violently tried to pull herself free. "Let me go! Ryuuji, I swear if you don't let me – "

"Hello, Mr. Aisaka? It's been a while, sir… Yes, sir, everything's been fine… Thank you… Thank you… "

Taiga felt all the blood in her body shoot up to her head. _What the hell?_

Ryuuji eyed her dryly, those eyes that had scared many a boy and girl back in high school coldly running over her own brown ones. "Yes, sir. She's with me right now… No, sir. Actually the reason I called was because I'm hoping you'd allow us to see you again tonight… Yes, sir. Tonight… "

"No!" Taiga cried out, and she clawed at Ryuuji's hand desperately. She didn't want to see her father again! Once a day – _once a year! _– was too much already!

Ryuuji didn't even wince when Taiga's nails dug down into the back of his hand so hard that it left nasty marks on them. He continued talking. "Yes, this time, I'm coming along… I have to insist that I be there, sir. I'd like to talk with you personally."

Taiga froze in her attempts at freeing herself. Ryuuji talking with her father? What was he thinking? She shook her head. "I don't know what you're planning here, Ryuuji, but I will _kill_ you if you don't put the phone down and let me go. I swear, I'll kill you."

"Excuse me," Ryuuji said to his phone before turning to Taiga. "Keep quiet for a second, please." Then he turned back to his phone. The grip he had on Taiga's wrist didn't slacken at all. "Yes… Yes… She never told me, sir…"

Taiga looked up at Ryuuji in disbelief. He had ordered her to keep quiet. Ryuuji had _asserted _himself.

…

While that could possibly the rarest thing that had ever happened within the history of their relationship, she could not help but feel even angrier at him. "You stupid dog! You stupid, _stupid _dog! I hate you! I hate you!"

"We'll be there in five minutes."

Taiga sank her teeth into Ryuuji's hand. _Hard_.

Ryuuji stiffened evidently. "_Ugh_… Make that ten minutes." And he snapped his mobile phone shut with a loud snap and stuffed it back into his pocket. He looked down at Taiga, whose teeth were still latched into his skin so deep she could already taste blood. His eyebrows were set in one straight line as he eyed his now bleeding hand, then Taiga's face.

The smell of Ryuuji's blood made Taiga wrinkle her nose, and the coppery taste in her mouth made her a bit nauseated. She was hurting him, she knew, but he did not let go of her wrist. Did he know she would up and leave as fast as she could if he released her?

"We're meeting your dad in front of my house," Ryuuji said blandly, and whatever emotion he was feeling at the moment did not show on his face. What was he thinking?

Taiga shook her head, her mouth still refusing to let go of his hand.

Ryuuji tugged her sharply. "Do you want to walk on your own, or do you want me to throw you over my shoulder? I'll let you decide. I'll give you a minute." He looked down at his watch.

Taiga couldn't believe Ryuuji. Not only was he being uncharacteristically pushy, but he was…

Taiga blushed.

He was also being appealingly… _male. _

She was suddenly aware of the size of his hand wrapped around her wrist, and the tiny dark hairs on his forearm. He was strong, and he made sure she knew it.

She squeezed the crumpled paper in her fist and slowly wrenched her teeth off his hand. She could see the marks she made on his skin; her front teeth were the ones that had sunk in the deepest, and the horizontal puncture holes were bleeding lightly just around the bone of the base of his thumb.

"Time's up," Ryuuji suddenly said, and Taiga screamed when the world disappeared from under her feet. Ryuuji had grabbed her around the waist and roughly slung her over one shoulder.

Taiga found her bag digging into her side painfully, but the arm Ryuuji had behind her knees was like a vise that shifting positions was virtually impossible. She didn't even bother to protest; she knew that by now Ryuuji wouldn't listen to her. This did not mean, however, that she was willing to see her father again.

"Look," Ryuuji suddenly said quietly as he slowly started walking down the street. A few cars drove by them, and Taiga ducked her head into her hands, embarrassed. "Ever since you came back, you've been in this weird funk about moving forward and being independent. You know I love you a lot and I respect the decisions you make in your life, and I would support you a thousand percent in anything you think you want to do. But…" Ryuuji took a deep breath, then let it our in a short huff. "But, we promised each other a year ago that we would do this the right way, remember?"

Taiga pressed her lips tighter together. She could never forget _that_.

Ryuuji's strides were steady as he turned the corner. "We're going to do this with everyone's approval. With everyone's blessings. Even if it takes forever to do it." He paused, sniffed. Taiga knew that he was embarrassed. Ryuuji always sniffed when embarrassed. "Your father, he may not be the best dad in the world, and I understand that you would never be able to like him as a parent, but he will _always_ be your father. I know that it might be hard to ask you this… but can you try to at least respect the man as, you know, a man?"

Taiga stiffened on his shoulders, and she found herself peeking between her fingers. She watched the ground move under her, an odd feeling tugging at her insides. "Put me down," she said softly. Then as if in an after thought, added, "Please."

Ryuuji stopped in his tracks, hesitated a bit, then finally complied. He set Taiga gently on her feet in front of him. He tried to catch her eye, but Taiga looked away. She knew that if she ever did look him in the eye, she would only cover up her own shame with violence. She always did. And she was genuinely starting to think she was being unfair to him. He never complained. Not even once.

"He was offering me money," Taiga said under her breath, still refusing to meet his eye. "He wanted me to accept the monthly allowance he's always given me when he found out I canceled the bank account he always deposits it in. I didn't want it. I didn't want _him_. I didn't want anything to do whatever that had some connection with him. In the end I just couldn't take it, and I walked out on him."

Ryuuji let out a small, awkward laugh. "He told me."

Taiga pursed her lips at the memory of their conversation. "He was talking about pride and money, and what I wanted. And he accused me of not even knowing what I need. I was so mad. I knew that if I didn't get out of there, I would have… "

_What? What would she have done? _

"I know what I want, you know." She shook her head, then finally raised her eyes up to Ryuuji as she tried to smoothen out the crumpled sheet in her hand. "I can go alone. I can ask him to sign this by myself. You don't need to get involved."

Ryuuji frowned at her. This was the last thing Taiga was expecting him to do. She had actually thought he would be proud of her.

"I can do it. And I won't scream at him this time. Because you asked me to respect him," she said, that last sentence uttered as quietly as she could, because saying it out loud just made it sound so corny to her ears.

Ryuuji's reaction did not change. "That's not what I meant." He reached out and placed a heavy hand on her head. "Why, Taiga? Why won't you want me to get involved?" The hand on her head traveled down to her cheek, and Taiga didn't even know what to do with it.

In this setting, where anyone could see them in the open streets, she would have normally brushed it away and scolded him for not choosing the right time or place for his affection. But it was the hand she had bitten earlier, and it was the hand that was still bleeding now. And that hand was warm against her cheek and she could not help but gravitate towards it.

"I _want _to get involved. I've told you this before. Many times, actually. You don't always have to let me know every single thing about your life. But there are times when I _do _want to be a part of it." He took a step forward. His other hand was now on her shoulder.

That was when Taiga started to panic. He wasn't going to kiss her in public, was he? Because she would _kill _him if he did! She nearly ripped the form in her hand when she used her elbow to remove the hand that was resting on her shoulder. "You _are _a part of it. You're one of the most important parts of it, actually. But I want to do this alone. It's my dad!"

"Exactly. _Your _dad. _Yours_." The resolve in his voice faltered a bit, and his face was instantly red, even his ears. He covered his mouth with a hand, then after a moment of what looked like deep pondering, he said, "I'm asking him. I'm asking your dad tonight."

Taiga was instantly confused. "What? _What _are you asking my dad tonight?"

Those sharp eyes of his darted from one place to another but eventually fell on Taiga's very lost-looking ones. He took a deep breath, then said, "Your hand in marriage."

Taiga blinked up at him, jaw practically dropping to the sidewalk.

"_What?"_

He was kidding, right?

* * *

_**TBC**_

* * *

_A/N: Hello to all my readers and reviewers! I don't usually leave author notes at the end of my stories unless I need to acknowledge some questions asked through reviews. Well, I'm not sure how long this story is going to be. When I first plotted it out in my head, I was aiming for about fifteen to twenty chapters, each chapter being a week or two apart from each other. So much for that plan, because I've already had three consecutive chapters that happened all in one day… LOL! So anyway, I think the fifteen to twenty chapters would be a very, very rough estimate, especially since I'm putting too much on my plate again. When I began writing the story, I was just aiming to have Taiga and Ryuuji grow individually and as a couple, but for some reason, my over-achieving nature started to kick in and I wanted to delve into Ami and Minori's unrequited love for Ryuuji (which, by the way, had been completely ignored at the end of the anime… ) as well. _

_Updates may be sporadic. I write for fun, and only when I'm inspired enough to sit down in front of my computer and type. I guess that's why I like the Toradora! fandom. Readers who are thoughtful enough to leave you a review are very few, yes, but there are absolutely ZERO naggers for updates. And that in itself, is a wonderful thing._

_Anyway, I'm ending my note here and I hope you stick with me til the last chapter of this story! _


	8. Disappointments And Phone Calls

**Chapter Eight**

**Disappointments and Phone Calls**

* * *

_~March 28~_

Ryuuji had always considered his IQ slightly above average. He had gotten good grades in school, did well with extra-curricular activities, and took pride in his ability to judge a person's character. That was how he had gotten by all throughout high school; by staying away from people who he knew wouldn't be up to any good, and make friends with other kids who shared a bit of his interests who he knew were pretty nice to hang around with.

Now, what had surprised him – given that he had _always_ thought of himself being a good judge of character – was why he continued on letting Aisaka Rikurou keep on tricking him, _again and again and again_, about keeping his word.

Kushieda had already told him once that the man was no good. Taiga had expressed her hatred for the man all through junior high. Ryuuji himself had been witness to the man's bad habit of breaking promises and breaking hearts. So he was asking himself now, even with all the evidence laid down in front of him, why he _still_ kept on trusting Taiga's father.

Ryuuji was sitting on the top of the stairs that led to the unit of their apartment. He remembered that Mr. Aisaka had agreed to meet them in front of Ryuuji's place in ten minutes. He looked down at his watch. So far, he had been waiting for two hours, and there was still no sign of the man. And to think he had practiced in his head how he was going to ask for Taiga's hand in marriage.

The door of his house opened, and Taiga peeked out with that bored look on her face. "Ryuuji. Get inside. He's not coming," she said quietly. When Ryuuji did not look up, she joined him on the stairs, sitting down beside him.

Ryuuji rested his forehead in his hand, suddenly feeling stupid. He had wanted – so very much – to keep Taiga from experiencing this kind of treatment from her father. But here they were, sitting outside while waiting for a man that, as Taiga had said, wasn't coming. When was he going to learn?

He felt Taiga's small hand on his back. "You'll get used to it after a while. You could see where I get my defining trait. He's good at running away. From his family. From his responsibilities. This isn't your fault."

Ryuuji knew that Taiga was trying to cheer him up, although it was just not working. _No one_ was supposed to get used to this treatment. Just the thought of Taiga having endured this all her life made his heart hurt. He rubbed his eyes roughly with a hand. "Maybe I should call him again." He had called him ten times already. The man had turned off his mobile. Ryuuji didn't even know if he should be mad about that. Right now, he just felt strangely spent.

Taiga sighed, and Ryuuji could feel the frustration in her voice. "Give it a rest. He's not coming. What else is new?" She stood up from her place, and started down the stairs. "I'm going home now. I'll see you tomorrow, all right?"

That was what made Ryuuji finally look up, a bit surprised. "What? Now? The last train left an hour ago."

When Taiga finally stopped on the sidewalk, she turned to him and said, "I'll take a taxi."

"They're expensive," Ryuuji pointed out and he was immediately on his feet and hurrying down towards her. "Stay for the night. You don't have work tomorrow, right?"

Taiga blinked up at him, somewhat looking taken aback as Ryuuji reached out and touched her shoulder. "No, I don't have work tomorrow," she said slowly.

"Then stay. It's dangerous for a girl to walk alone at night."

She looked up at him for approximately five seconds before smiling. "The stupid Chihuahua left a note on your TV, by the way. She said thank you for the curry."

Ryuuji frowned. He hadn't even bothered coming inside his house to check if Kawashima was still there or not. Actually, he had _forgotten_ of the fact that he had left the model in his house to run after Taiga. He had even forgotten to even ask Taiga why in the world she had run off like that from him. He squeezed Taiga's shoulder gently. "Was it because Kawashima was here? Was that the reason why you ran away from me again?"

Of course, he did not want to start assuming that Taiga was… _jealous…_ of the girl. The two of them had always had a tough rivalry back in high school, but he could tell that they had always considered themselves friends.

Taiga stared at him. And was that disbelief in her eyes? "You are unbelievable," she said.

"What did I do?"

Taiga shook her head. "Nothing, nothing." She started back up the stairs after shrugging Ryuuji's hand off her shoulder. "I swear, a middle-aged, balding man could confess his undying love for you and you _still _wouldn't notice."

Ryuuji stared at her retreating back in confusion. "What? What's that supposed to mean?" An image of a bald man down on one knee and holding his hand flashed through his mind's eye and he shivered in horror. He ran after Taiga up the stairs.

Taiga was already removing her shoes and entering the house when he got there.

"I don't understand you women sometimes. Why do you always insist on talking in stupid riddles?" Ryuuji muttered as he, too, took off his sneakers and aligned them neatly on one side of the narrow entranceway.

Taiga kicked her own shoes carelessly to the other side and hurried into the living room.

"Taiga!" Ryuuji called at her disapprovingly. How many times did he have to tell her to line her shoes against the wall? Fixing them himself, he followed her into the living room, where he found her already on her stomach on the tatami, chin resting on a floor pillow. Her legs were in the air, crossing and uncrossing at the ankles.

Ryuuji could only watch her. She was always like this when she started a conversation she didn't want to finish. Sometimes Ryuuji was starting to believe his fiancée had started developing newer ways of _'running away' _without really running away.

Tonight wasn't turning into a nice night. He had a bite mark deep enough to draw blood, waited outside for two hours for a loser of a soon-to-be father-in-law who in the end didn't show up, and now Taiga had thrown him more anagrams, before deciding to ignore him. Why did he get the feeling that he was being unappreciated?

Ryuuji sat down to her left and was seriously considering pressing the issue about Kawashima Ami, but decided that Taiga had enough emotional stress tonight. He tentatively placed a hand – the one that still bore her teeth marks – on her back. "Why don't you go and take a shower? I'll get you a towel and one of Yasuko's pajamas."

Taiga grunted, but didn't say anything.

Ryuuji sighed. "Don't give me that. You'll feel better after you've cleaned up. Do you want me to draw you a bath instead? It'll take a while, but if you're willing to wait…"

Taiga, after a moment of silence, rolled onto her back, and the hand Ryuuji had on her back ended up on her flat stomach. He pulled it away self-consciously. This was probably one of the problems people had when they meet with their girlfriends or boyfriends after a year of nursing a long-distance relationship; they would not know how much touching is _'too much touching'_.

Taiga watched him with those big hazel eyes of hers, her mouth in a grim line. "Ryuuji," she said.

Ryuuji turned to Taiga warily before asking, "What is it?"

"How's your hand?"

Taken by surprise at her sudden concern, he raised the hand in front of them and shrugged. "The bleeding's stopped."

"Does it hurt?"

Ryuuji bit his lower lip. Having been with Taiga back in high school had actually made his body immune to pain. She was very generous with punches and round-house kicks that the bite on his hand wasn't anything he was worried about. "I barely felt a thing," he said.

Taiga's face was instantly red and she turned away. "You're an idiot."

Ryuuji frowned again. "What did I do now?"

"You're being _you_. You know, you can get mad at me for this. Actually, I don't even know why you're as okay about this setting as you are. I mean, I ran away again, when I promised you I won't run away anymore. I bit you hard. I know you're lying about the pain. And my dad stood us up. What's there not to get mad about?"

Ryuuji looked down at the bite marks Taiga had left on his hand, then sighed. "You never promised me you'd never run away again. You promised me you'd let me chase after you _when _you run away. And you did. This wound will heal in a few days. And your dad is just… well… "

Taiga sat up, pulling her knees to her chest. "You don't have to defend him. You can just forget this ever happened."

"But… the termination form?"

I have a _shachihata_ in my new apartment with his name on it. I can always forge it. I had wanted to do it the right way and get him to sign it legally, but he left me no choice but do it the dirty way."

Ryuuji still did not know what to think about the forging thing, but he did not want to press Taiga any more than necessary. He stood up from his spot, retrieved a towel from their linen closet and draped it over Taiga's head. "Get showered and changed. We don't have an extra futon, so you can have mine. I'll just sleep out here."

Taiga, whose face was hidden under the towel, cleared her throat. "Why are you like this?" she suddenly asked.

Ryuuji, who was in the act of opening Yasuko's room to retrieve a pair of pajamas, paused before looking over at her again. "Why am I like what?" Did he do something bad again?

She had pulled the towel off her head, making a few locks of her bangs stand on end. "Why do you have to be so nice?" she asked in a small voice, so soft Ryuuji barely heard her.

Ryuuji blinked, closed Yasuko's room again, fighting back the urge to run to Taiga and fix her hair. "Uh, isn't _'nice' _a good thing? Your bangs are sticking up."

Taiga frowned, tried to pat down her hair. There was a lock she had missed, and Ryuuji couldn't take it anymore and hurried to her side to smoothen it out.

"Sorry. It was bothering me," he said, then sat back down beside her.

Taiga looked up at him with serious eyes. "One of these days, Ryuuji, you're going to realize that your kindness towards other people will end you with a handful of admirers, and sooner or later, you're going to realize that we're just eighteen, and that eighteen is too young to meet your soul mate." She smiled painfully.

Ryuuji, for the love of him, had no idea where this conversation was coming from. He scratched his head. "For the record, I met my soul mate when I was _seventeen_. And right now, she's talking weird about something that I do not really understand." He tried to take her hand in his, but she tucked them under her towel. Feeling a bit hurt at the rebuff, he asked, "What have I done now?"

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It's just that you have this… _thing_ going on around you that drive people crazy." Taiga never took her eyes off him. "You really don't see it, do you?"

The conversation was getting weirder and weirder, Ryuuji realized. "Is this still about Kawashima?" he asked slowly.

Taiga smiled ruefully, then shook her head. "Did you know that she's always liked you back in high school?"

Ryuuji was silent. That was just ridiculous. Kawashima not hating him did not make her _'like'_ like him. Taiga was being stupid.

"Anyway, since I bet you're rolling it in your head that what I just said to you is a bucket of crap, I think I will take a shower," Taiga said. She was on her feet, towel in hand, and disappeared in their bathroom without another word, leaving Ryuuji stunned and speechless in the living room.

Was it just him, or was that the second time Taiga's gotten jealous over a friend from high school? Staring at the closed door of the bathroom, Ryuuji didn't know what to do. He was never really used to this kind of attention. From girls, more so. He had always been feared in school because of his mean look that he had unfortunately inherited from the father he'd never even met. Girls and boys alike usually shied away from him. They don't end up _'liking' _him.

He pushed the thought out of his head as he went into Yasuko's bedroom and swiped one of her smaller pajamas from her overflowing wardrobe. He had to control himself from digging into Yasuko's things to refold some of the dresses she had discarded carelessly into a pile in her closet, and the only thing that really kept him from invading her personal space was the promise he had made that he will leave her room alone. Getting out of there as fast as he could, he went into his room, arranged the futon for Taiga and laid down the pajamas on it.

He immediately went to the window to draw the curtains close, but he took his time in looking at the dark window of what used to be Taiga's apartment right outside his room's balcony. The reality that Taiga really had moved away from him started to bother him again. But he had promised her that he would support her in her decisions. It had been easier when she was just living next door_._

He pulled the curtains closed, looked down at his desk and fingered the pamphlet of Ninomae University. Kushieda had mentioned that the entrance exams for the next trimester were on the last week of April. He knew he should really start studying for it. But it was as if he had been running around all month, busy with Taiga's arrival, not to mention her move and her new job. Now that he thought about it, he had been so busy with Taiga's life that he was starting to forget his own.

When was the last time he'd had a decent talk with Yasuko? Well, he had made sure that they eat lunch and dinner together, but because his mother was always tired with her night job, he had been letting her sleep in later than he would have preferred. And was it just him, or was Yasuko coming home later than usual?

"Get out. I'm getting dressed."

Ryuuji jumped from his place. Standing by the door of his room was Taiga wrapped in a towel, her dirty clothes tucked under one arm, her long hair wet and dripping on the tatami. Now, of course if Ryuuji wasn't Ryuuji, he would have noticed that his fiancée was naked in his room with nothing but a thin towel wrapped around her. But because Ryuuji _was _Ryuuji, he immediately grabbed his own towel hanging from the back of his desk chair and hurriedly tossed it over Taiga's head.

"H-hey!" Taiga cried loudly as Ryuuji started to rub her hair briskly.

"You're dripping all over the floor. You know how molds make our apartment a breeding ground," he explained, though he did not understand why he had to explain such an obvious thing.

"I can do it myself," Taiga said as she shooed Ryuuji away from her, dropping her dirty clothes in the process. "Now let me get changed."

Ryuuji scooped up the fallen clothes with one hand. "You should have just left these in the laundry hamper. I'm washing them in the morning."

That was when Taiga's head popped out from under the towel, a look of horror masking her face. "Don't touch those!"

Ryuuji looked at her, surprised. "Huh? Why shouldn't I? I've washed your clothes many times before, remember?"

"But that was before we started going out…" Taiga's face turned red, and she pursed her lips. "D-don't touch my underwear…"

Ryuuji blinked a few times, looked down at the crumpled clothing in his hands, then returned his gaze back at Taiga. "I live with a club hostess for a mother. You think I'm not used to seeing girl's underwear?" After a while, he suddenly realized what she was really trying to say and he shook his head vigorously, suddenly embarrassed. "What, you think I'm going to steal it like some perverted stalker boyfriend or something? You know me better than that."

Taiga's face turned a few shades redder. "Y-you'd better not, you stupid mutt."

Ryuuji, while used to Taiga's uninspiring insults, couldn't help but smile. "Mutt? Been a while since I've heard that from you."

Taiga bared her teeth at him. "Well, that's because that stupid Chihuahua was here earlier, and the dog insults just naturally came parading back in my head."

Ah. So that was it. Ryuuji sighed. "You're still hung up on Kawashima being here earlier, aren't you? I know you weren't – hey! What the – !"

Taiga had shoved him out of his room, and without another word, slammed the door in his face.

"Taiga!" Ryuuji cried out in frustration. She was running away again. And this time she had a good enough excuse to keep him away. "Make sure you dry your hair properly, okay?"

No answer.

Ryuuji stepped towards the door. "I know you can hear me. And don't put the wet towels on the futon. And when you comb your hair, make sure to pick up the fallen strands because they bother the hell out of me. And – "

The door snapped open, and Ryuuji took a huge step back. Taiga was already in Yasuko's pajamas, and her hair was twisted on top of her head with Ryuuji's towel. In her arms was what looked like Ryuuji's comforter. "Just because I have an idiot for a father doesn't give you the right to take his place and nag at me like one. I'm going to bed." She hurled the comforter violently at Ryuuji, then slammed the door closed with a bang.

Ryuuji, still reeling from the impact of Taiga's attack, balanced himself against the refrigerator and sighed.

Damn it. She got away again.

* * *

"Hello?"

"_Hey! Been a while. How're you doing?"_

"… Oh… It's _you_. Are you sure you should be calling? Overseas calls are expensive."

"_I just wanted to check up on you."_

"Ugh. What time is it there?"

"_It's five in the morning."_

"You're an idiot."

"_Thanks. I can see the year's been good to you. I never thought you'd be able to tell me I'm an idiot without even batting an eyelash."_

"Heh. I'm over with the sweet act. You know that."

"_That's a good girl."_

"So. How's America?"

"_Oh, the usual. The people here are huge. It's definitely the water. Or maybe the air?"_

"You're Asian. Deal with it. So. Did you get her to fall for you yet?"

"…"

"Yuusaku?"

"_What?"_

"You _are_ in the same college, right?"

"_Yeah. We're actually in the same class."_

"Things going well?"

"…"

"Yuusaku? The seconds are ticking, and this call isn't getting any cheaper. Why did you call?"

"_Oh. I just wanted to check on you."_

"Check on me? It's not as if I need the checking… Did Takasu-kun say anything?"

"_Takasu? No, I haven't talked to him in a while. What's up?"_

"… Nothing. I'm fine."

"_You and I, we've been friends since we were kids. I had an inkling."_

"Jesus... I'm hanging up."

"_Yeah, right. You're not _really _going to hang up on me. How are things there?"_

"I'm on temporary leave, if you really _have_ to know."

"_Are you being stalked again?"_

"Are you kidding me? After the newspaper made a big deal out of that stalker I destroyed last year, no one would even dare think of doing that again."

"_I'm glad, then."_

"I went to see Takasu-kun today. I just got home, really."

"… _Ami."_

"What?"

"_They're getting married."_

"I know that. I didn't do anything."

"_Don't make things hard for Aisaka and Takasu."_

"I didn't do anything!"

"_I've known you since we were kids. I _know_ you."_

"Well, haven't you always told me to be true to myself? I'm being true to myself now."

"_I know I've been telling you to be true to your feelings, but you're not stupid. Use prudence."_

"Can I help it if I like him?"

"_He belongs to someone else."_

"Did you call me to lecture me?"

"_No. I told you. I had an inkling. And I was right. Anyway, I'm coming home for Christmas this year. I'll be there for about two weeks for winter break. You'd better behave."_

"Yes, daddy."

"_Ami."_

"You can't tell me not to see him once in a while. I _am _on leave."

"_Just… just keep it clean. All right?"_

"All right, Yuusaku."

"_Good bye."_

"Good bye."

* * *

_**TBC**_

* * *

**A/N: I've finally gotten the outline down for this story, and I will limit the chapters to 25. I have everything planned out until the ending(March, exactly a year after the first chapter), and maybe an epilogue, depending on the popularity of the story. (Although I doubt its popularity, given not many people seem to be reviewing. Kinda sad, really. This is the first time I've written for this fandom.)**

**Don't worry. I won't hold a chapter hostage just to get reviews, because I hate authors who do that. Although I am asking nicely for a bit of feedback so that I would know how I'm going. Of course, you're not entitled to review, just as I'm not entitled to update every week. But we fanfiction authors get our kicks from reviews, so it would be nice to receive them once in a while. LOL! **

**Bah, what am I saying? Review if you feel like it. If you don't, then just keep reading. **


	9. Nosebleeds and Minori

**Chapter Nine**

**Nosebleeds and Minori**

* * *

_~April 29~_

The month passed uneventful for Ryuuji. With Taiga finally used to her work and new living arrangements, he had finally found time to study for the entrance examinations for Ninomae for the whole of April. Actually, in the span of a month, he had finally settled with a schedule that balanced out his priorities as a fiancé, a son and an aspiring college student.

Weekday mornings were allotted for his daily chores, with Tuesdays and Fridays for laundry day. He would get everything done before ten in the morning and get on straight in preparing lunch for Yasuko before she woke up at round noon. (She had stopped eating breakfast with him altogether.) Grocery shopping was done after lunch on Mondays and Thursdays when there would be a sale in the local supermarket, and once in a while he would drag Yasuko along with him just to make her stretch her muscles a bit.

He would meet up with Taiga on Saturdays and Sundays to clean up her new place and go out on occasional dates. These were probably the days he looked forward to the most, because as pathetic as if may sound, those two days of the week were the only days he could confirm that Taiga was still _there _and was _still _his fiancée. She lived in the same city, ten minutes away by train, two wards away. And yet from Mondays to Fridays, she acted like a perfect stranger to him. He knew she was not keen on text messages and phone calls, and Ryuuji wasn't the one to nag, and so majority of their week was spent like they had spent it when Taiga had left for her mother's house. Which was, to say, practically indifferent with each other. The fact that Taiga had been struggling to be 'independent' must be one of the main reasons why this was so.

She had tried this stunt once or twice back in high school, telling him that she didn't need him around, and that she can stand on her own two feet. Ryuuji had ignored her then, not because he did not think Taiga was capable of fending for herself, but because it was _he _who couldn't take it to be away from _her_.

But because Ryuuji had promised her that he was going to support her decisions, he had been true to his word and didn't try to invade the space she was so meticulously building around herself.

But still… He _missed _her.

Good thing he would be able to see her tomorrow. Today was a Friday. He had finished his chores earlier than usual. It was already eleven and he had prepared Yasuko's lunch before grabbing a quick shower and putting on something decent enough to wear for University.

Today was the day he would be taking the entrance exams. It was strange. He didn't even feel nervous. Or excited. He just felt like he was in a state of… A state of what? _Indifference?_

If Ryuuji were to say it honestly, maybe he really _was_ indifferent. If he passed, he was thinking of getting a two year course in Economics. Which was weird, because his homeroom teacher from high school had been convinced he would take a four-year course in whatever branch of science he had excelled in back in senior year.

But he had never really wanted to study. Honestly, right now, all he wanted was to work. And get Yasuko out of her night job and get a normal part time job at some local restaurant or coffee shop where she wouldn't have to deal with groping old men.

"Ryuu-chan?" came Yasuko's voice as she slid the door of her room open to peek out at him.

Ryuuji looked over to her and bristled at the sight of Yasuko still in yesterday's clothes and yesterday's make-up. "How many times do I have to tell you to wash your face before you go to bed? Do you know how long it takes to remove your mascara stains on your pillow case? _Forever_. That's how long."

As usual, Yasuko simply giggled as she crawled out of her futon and still kept on crawling out until her upper body was lying on the tatami of the living room. She crossed her arms under her chin and eyed Ryuuji appreciatively. "Awww. You're all dressed up. Today's the entrance exams, right?"

"Ah, yeah," Ryuuji said as he checked his number two pencils if they were all sharpened before stuffing his pencil case in his bag. "It starts at two, but I'm planning to meet up with Kushieda for lunch, so I'm leaving early. Then she's going to show me where the examination hall is."

"Hmmm," Yasuko mused as she turned to flop on her back. "I see. At least you know someone from your old high school, right, Ryuu-chan? Having a familiar face in a new environment is different from knowing no one at all."

Ryuuji sighed. Well, it wasn't as if he was going to school to make friends, but having at least _someone_ back from high school who wouldn't assume he was some delinquent because of his mean look was sort of a relief to him. "There's salmon fillet in the pan for lunch, and the rice will be ready in a few minutes."

"Yay, fillet!" Yasuko cheered as she pushed herself on all fours and crawled out into the living room to the table where Inko-chan was, as always molting in his cage. "It looks like it will be just you and me for lunch, Inko-chan."

The bird stared at Yasuko with his unfocused eyes before suddenly blurting out, _"P-p-penis!"_

Ryuuji felt his face heat up. "No, really, Yasuko-what have you been teaching him?"

Yasuko had the decency to blush herself. "I guess Inko-chan loves to listen to me talk on the phone," she said absently as she poked a finger into the cage. Inko-chan hopped away from her, saying, _'vagina'!_

Ryuuji didn't even bother to respond. What conversation his mother was having on the phone that involved _'penis' _and _'vagina' _was something he did not need to think about before taking a three-hundred item test. He slung his back over one shoulder. "I'm off, then. I know you're probably going to go back to sleep after eating, so make sure you wash your face and get out of those clothes before you wrinkle them any more than you already have."

Yasuko conveniently seemed to have heard only the first part of what he said, because she lunged at his feet and hugged them tightly. "Good luck on the exams, Ryuu-chan! I know you can do it! Break your neck!"

Ryuuji cried out loud as he almost lost his balance. Grabbing at the refrigerator to prevent himself from falling over completely, he hurriedly disentangled his legs from Yasuko's embrace. "It's _break a leg_. And thank you. I'll be home before dinner." He paused, then turned to Yasuko. "By the way, what time did you get back this morning?"

Yasuko looked a bit startled. Ryuuji seldom asked about her schedule. Well, in reality, Ryuuji wasn't very keen on asking her much about it. He knew she was working very hard for him, and the last thing he wanted was for her to think that he was worrying about her. Yasuko had always been sensitive with their mother-son relationship. She had always been convinced that Ryuuji didn't have to worry about anything that did not concern studying, and made a fuss when Ryuuji made a big deal of her business.

"Around… four… I think… " Yasuko said, looking away. She started twiddling her thumbs.

Ryuuji looked down at his mother. He had never really thought Yasuko to be a liar, and he wouldn't have believed it had he not seen it with his own eyes. Ryuuji had been awake at five in the morning to study a bit more. Yasuko didn't come in until seven. Ryuuji scolded himself instantly. He did not even know why he was looking for opportunities to catch Yasuko lying to him. He wasn't being fair to her.

Ryuuji smiled down at her and placed a hand on her head. "You're always working hard. Thank you."

This instantly brought back the smile on his mother's face, and she used this opportunity to glomp him.

After successfully fending her off of him, Yasuko made a fuss in seeing him off, and in the end she was practically dangling out their living room window, waving Ryuuji goodbye as he descended the stairs until he had turned the curb and disappeared down the alley.

He hoped Yasuko wasn't trying too hard. If she ended up getting sick again, he wouldn't know what he'd do.

* * *

Kushieda Minori didn't know why she had a thing for nosebleeds. No, she didn't think she _liked_ having them. Not really. But lately – well, for the last two years, to be exact – she had been suffering from all kinds of nosebleeds.

Her heart was having a nosebleed right now.

Because as she raised her hand over her head to wave at an approaching Takasu Ryuuji, she thought to herself, _'How could a man look so appealingly beautiful and still not be aware of it himself?'_

"Hey there. Have you been waiting long?" Ryuuji asked as he reached her side. He was dressed in a casual coat and slacks today, feet donned in suede shoes. He usually stuck to plain shirts, jeans and over-worn sneakers, but today he seemed like he was breaking out of tradition. It did not seem like he was trying too hard to look good, but it was obvious he was trying to make an impression for examination day. It was something Minori had realized in Ryuuji since high school. He had always tried to dress down in humble clothes that would make him look _kind_. Not cool. Not hot.

_Kind_.

It may have something to do with his obvious dislike of his facial features. He was convinced people saw him as a delinquent. Minori wondered why he was trying too hard. She had always thought he looked nice.

She shook her head. "I just got here two minutes ago. I would have gotten here earlier, but I had to water my goldfish."

Ryuuji stared at her for a brief moment, probably to digest what she had just said, then he nodded. "Today's my treat. What do you feel like having for lunch? Are you all right? You're a bit fidgety."

Minori couldn't help but muse silently at Ryuuji's reaction. It was strange. She had been trying really hard to think of more outrageous comments to say to him in case she started getting flustered, but nothing seemed to shock him enough to distract him from the fact that she was wringing her hands nervously. If this were to go on for the rest of the year, she might end up having to ignore him, as she had done in the past. She didn't think she could keep up her chipper façade in front of him without running out of strange comments.

Minori shook her head. "Fidgety? No, I'm all right? Are you?"

Ryuuji laughed as they made their way through the gates of Ninomae and headed straight for the coffee shop. The campus was fairly crowded with people who would be taking the entrance exams that day. "I think I've studied fine enough. I've been up all night cramming."

"All night? Really?"

"Okay, you got me. _All month."_

Minori looked up at him curiously as they entered the coffee shop. A whole month? That was very shady. He had never struck Minori too eager to get into a college. "You were smart enough back in high school. I thought you weren't the one to sweat these kinds of things."

Ryuuji shrugged uncaringly as he led her to a vacant table by the window. "You can never be too sure, or your grades too high, for an entrance exams. Were they hard?" he asked.

Minori watched him intently as she took her seat from across him. Her foot brushed against his from under the table. She swallowed. "I forget. I just wanted to get it over with, crossed my fingers, and remarkably, I passed."

"You're being modest. Your grades weren't bad back in high school," Ryuuji commented. "By the way, we seldom get to hang out with you. Why don't you join us tomorrow for lunch?"

Minori felt her breath hitch in her throat, and she hurriedly let out a small laugh. By '_us_', he must mean Taiga.

_Taiga. _

The name in itself couldn't even make her brain come up with a good enough joke to cover her discomfort. But _why _was she uncomfortable?

They had been friends _– best of friends_ – majority of their high school. The friendship had been something she hadn't expected, of course. _'The Palmtop Tiger'_ wasn't famous for making friends. But for some unexplainable reason, she had liked her, and had actually thought her a pussy cat more than anything else. Taiga had loved to cuddle. And tackle. And tickle.

Of course, when Takasu Ryuuji came into the picture, everything just… _changed._

It wasn't until their second year in high school did Minori actually gotten to know Ryuuji. He was just someone who was always around Kitamura Yuusaku back in first year. And because Yuusaku was into softball as she was, she guessed it was just automatic that they became friends when they were put in the same class. And then _'Takasu the Delinquent'_ came in as a sort of extension to that friendship.

Not that she had complained. She had actually thought Ryuuji to be a cool enough person to hang out with.

But that was until she found out that he _'kind of' _liked her. It got worse when she started to suspect that she _'sort of' _liked him. And everything just went down the drain when she discovered that Taiga was _'definitely' _in love with him. Ugh… High school love was always the most difficult, especially with all those shoujou manga circulating around convenience stores where they let you read them for free, but still put price tags on them for you to buy.

Stupid shoujou manga. They make it sound like falling in love was easy, so they make you wanna give it a shot, and then you'd end up disappointed because you'd find out the hard way that reality wasn't as romantic as they'd go like in those stories.

"Kushieda?"

Minori snapped out of her reverie as she looked up to see Ryuuji looking at her, a menu in his hand. A waitress was standing over their table patiently. "Huh?"

"Your order?"

Minori turned to the waitress. Crap… "Ah, I'll have your latest shoujou manga, with a bit of fried potato on the side," she said.

The waitress, bless her little bonnet, continued on smiling, and politely asked, "Excuse me, I didn't quite hear right. What was your order again?"

Minori sagged against her chair, feeling like an idiot but still forcing herself to laugh. "I'll have your Set A, with the salad and a coffee."

The waitress jotted it down on a small memo before bowing to them, saying an off-handed 'please wait a moment', before walking away.

Ryuuji was watching her from over his menu. "Do you eat here a lot?" he asked after a moment of silence.

Minori blinked. "Not really. Why?"

"You didn't even have to look at the menu to make an order. What's in Set A?"

Minori blinked again. She felt her mouth open ajar, and quickly she snatched the menu from him, skimming through it to see what was Set A.

It was a shrimp and broccoli gratin.

Damn. She hated broccoli.

Sighing in resignation, she closed the menu and handed it back to Ryuuji. "Something yummy," she lied.

"Oh. Okay. So…" Ryuuji started. "How about it? Tomorrow? Lunch with Taiga? And maybe if we can convince Kawashima to come with us, it'll be like old times. What say?"

Ugh… The invitation again.

Minori smiled brightly, though she felt like anything but smiling. "Aww, I'd love to go, but we always have Saturday softball practices. Maybe next time?"

Ryuuji stared at her pointedly. Those eyes. He had always been convinced they were scary. Minori had never thought so even once. He had always the sharpest eyes. As if he could see through you. "You know, I never got the chance to ask you about it. Because, you know, I'm not the one to pry. But… have you and Taiga fought?"

See? It was like he saw everything!

Minori tried to arrange her face. "Me and Taiga? Nope. I don't think so. Why?"

"Well, it's because ever since she came back from her mom's place, it was like you two have been… _different_. And that's almost two months now. I know that she has her job, and that you're busy with school and sports… But… well… "

"We didn't fight, Takasu-kun. Taiga and I are friends."

"I know that. It's just… " He started, paused, then shook his head. "Forget it. I'm sorry I sound like I'm prying."

"Oh, no, no. I know you're just concerned about Taiga. But there's nothing wrong. How is she, by the way? Everything going all right between you two?" Oh, she just had to ask that? She was starting to believe that she was a masochist.

"We're all right. She's pretty busy, so we don't see each other much… "

How was she supposed to move on with her life now that she had this man in front of her, and will most probably see him for the whole school year? She had tried hard to stay away from him. She had already told herself that this was what she really wanted, for Taiga and Ryuuji to be happy with each other because Taiga needed him the most.

As if _she _didn't need him.

She had told Taiga that she was going to find her own happiness, and that Taiga didn't have the right to tell her what would make her happy. And she was telling her the truth. She just conveniently left out the fact that she was happy when she had the hints that Ryuuji liked her. Minori hadn't let Ryuuji confess to her back in high school. She knew that if she did, she wouldn't have been able to hold hers back.

When had she started liking him, anyway? Taiga had sensed it. That was why Taiga had tried to distance herself from Ryuuji.

But Ryuuji was Minori's friend before she started liking him, and so she had convinced herself that it would be unfair of her to severe all ties with him just because she still didn't trust herself enough to stay away from romantic thoughts about him.

He belonged to someone else. She had practically pushed them towards each other on Valentines Day a year ago. She did not have the right to complain.

But if that were so, then why was she still having shrimp and broccoli gratin with him?

Damn it all.

"How… how about Sunday?" Ryuuji asked again.

Panic gripped her then and there. She laughed out loud. "I have work. But tell you what." She leaned closer to him and said, "When I finally rule the world once I succeed in changing emergency airbags with rubber duckies, I'll be filthy, stinking rich that I'd have my Saturdays and Sundays open. Are you sure you don't want to rule the world with me? We can do it twice as fast with the two of us working together."

Ryuuji stared at her in disbelief, then finally – _finally! _– backed away. "Err… no, thanks. I'm just here to study."

Minori felt her heart ache, and she clicked her tongue loudly. "Well, don't say I didn't invite you. Coz the money's all in the rubber duckies."

"Well, if ever you open up your schedule for us, Taiga and I are just a phone call away. Okay?"

And she felt her heart die then and there.

She gave him a salute. "Yessir!"

She was grateful when their food came. She was so disappointed of herself that she ate everything. Even the broccoli.

After showing Ryuuji where the examination hall was, they said goodbye, and she hurried to the toilet and threw up her lunch.

Her heart was having another nosebleed.

* * *

_**TBC**_


	10. UFO Sightings

**Chapter Ten**

**UFO Sightings**

* * *

_~May 3~_

Coffee was probably one of her basic food groups lately. Not that she was complaining. Coffee was cheap. They came in cans, bottles, instant, drip, decaf. And they had but a few of calories on them, of course.

"A-min!"

Ami looked up from her cup when Kushieda Minori dropped on the seat next to her, then caught her around the neck in a choke hold.

"Ugh! Sit over there!" Ami said irritably as she shoved Minori away.

"Aww! A-min!" Minori whined but scooted over the seat across her. "You're as tight as always."

"It's nice to see you, too," Ami said dryly, straightening her shirt slowly as she watched Minori grin back at her. "I was surprised when I got a text from you. What do you want?"

Minori laughed her usual laugh. "Do I need a reason to see a friend?"

Ami was not fooled. She took her time in sipping her coffee. She didn't know this girl for a year for nothing. Minori would keep everything – _everything _– in, until she couldn't take it anymore, and then she would break down crying when everything was just too much to bear, while spouting out nonsense about nosebleeds, life and failing at it.

Minori calling her out of the blue for a coffee meant she was almost at her limit.

That, or she was just lonely.

In the past year, this had happened but twice. The first time was when Taiga and Ryuuji had decided to elope. Minori had lent them her life savings, even when she didn't truly believe that they doing the right thing. And the moment the couple had left Ami's place to prepare for their elopement, Minori had cried. She cried so hard Ami hadn't known what to do.

It had been one of the most confusing things Ami had ever experienced. Because at that moment, she had wondered if Minori was crying because she had lost _Taiga _to _Ryuuji_, or _Ryuuji _to _Taiga_. The girl had loved Taiga to pieces. And had loved Ryuuji secretly from afar while trying to convince herself that she didn't…

The second time happened seven months after Taiga had left for her mother, when Minori found out that she had been accepted to Ninomae. And hadn't Ami been forced to run down to the nearest Sudoh Bucks just to meet with her and ask what had happened that was so important that made her cry on the phone, demanding that they met _then and now?_

It turned out that Minori wanted advice about Ryuuji. _Ryuuji of all people! _Minori said she had once again opened the lines of communication with him. That had been the first time Ami learned that Minori even stopped talking to the boy. She had left Oohashi to pursue her modeling, and had kind of fallen off the bandwagon when Yuusaku left for America, and news about Taiga and Ryuuji came from either Ryuuji himself, or from Kihara Maya, who still kept in touch with her.

So Ami was pretty sure that the most likely a reason why Minori wanted to meet with her over coffee was once again, because of Ryuuji.

It was strange, really. When Ami first came to Oohashi, one of the reasons why she didn't want to leave was because she had that weird desire to _'save' _Taiga. Perhaps it was because she saw herself in the tiny girl; trying to be tough even when she was suffering inside.

Of all the people she had to save, it had to be _Minori_.

And that was because the girl had started putting up an act when Ryuuji and Taiga started dating.

"A-min… " Minori started, and her face crumpled slightly, her chin dimpling, and her tears threatened to fall.

Ami pulled the sunglasses perched on her nose, and unceremoniously crammed it into Minori's face. The girl let out a strangled yell, but clung to those sunglasses desperately as she leaned her head on the back rest of her chair.

"Thanks, A-min."

"You're welcome." And she sipped her coffee. She knew what was coming next. Maybe she'd always known. She was not stupid. And being someone who was also in love with Takasu Ryuuji, maybe _she _was the only one who truly understood Minori.

She hated this fact. She hated it that Minori always sought advice from her. There was a point in time when she had loved it, the fact that everyone thought she was mature for her age.

That was until Takasu Ryuuji pointed out to her that she was "very childish". That was when she realized that she was tired of being mature, and from time to time wanted to act her age.

Even if, at the very least, just in front of _him_.

"He's going to pass Ninomae," Minori suddenly said, still keeping her head back. Her hands were on either side of her head, as if ready to wipe away a tear that would dare escape from the confines of her sunglasses. "He's smart. He'd always been smart. He'll pass with flying colors. And then we'll have to be in the same school for a few years. Again."

Ami looked down at her cup of coffee feeling suddenly sick. Did she really have to hear about Kushieda's feelings when she herself was a mess as it was? She knew what Minori wanted to hear, and she could just tell her what she wanted, and get on with her life.

But she had said it to Ryuuji before, a couple of summers ago, in a cave near her rest house. She did not think it was fair to Minori if she decided to lie about what she honestly thought of the situation.

Ami looked up from her cup. "Minori."

Minori did not move from her place.

Ami placed her cup down onto the table. "You and Takasu-kun can never be."

Minori twitched on her seat. She laughed a small laugh, then said, "Because of Taiga, right? I know that."

Ami shook her head. "This doesn't have anything to do with Aisaka-san. Even if Takasu-kun wasn't dating Aisaka-san, you and he would never have worked out. Do you want to know why I think so?"

Minori finally raised her head from the backrest and, through those dark sunglasses Ami knew she was looking at her. "Sure."

Ami took a deep breath, as if bracing herself. She hadn't expected to say this to Minori. Well, come to think of it, she had not expected a lot of things to turn out the way they did. She had always thought that if it came to the question of who Ryuuji _loved _the most, then it would have been Minori, no doubt. And then she had thought that if it came to the question of who _needed _Ryuuji the most, then it would have been Taiga. And then, she had thought that if it came to the question of who _deserved_ Ryuuji the most, she would have thought…

She would have thought the answer was…

_I deserve him the most…_

"You're the sun, Kushieda-san. And Takasu-kun is the moon," Ami finally said after a long moment of silence. And Minori smiled. Ami didn't even know why she felt like she didn't have to explain what she meant. It was as if Minori already knew.

Minori rubbed her nose with the back of one hand, laughed. "Sun and moon, huh? I never really thought of it that way. But you're wrong, A-min. If anything, Takasu is the sun. It's like… everything good and wonderful just… _basks _in his light. Do you get what I'm saying?"

Ami closes her eyes and slouched lower into her seat. _Only too well, Kushieda-san… _

Minori laughed. "I'm a horrible person, don't you think so?"

Ami opened her eyes and watched as Minori fidgeted with her skirt. "Why do you think so?"

She laughed again. "I'm a horrible friend. I've been avoiding Taiga lately."

Now this was new to Ami. She sat up straighter in her seat. It's been two months since Taiga came home from her mother's place. Ami had heard from Ryuuji himself that Taiga had actually moved out of her apartment from Shibuya to Akasaka for a reason Ryuuji never really explained well to her. She had also heard that Taiga had taken a job at a small daycare near her new place. But she did not know that Taiga and Minori were… not in speaking terms. "Why?" she asked.

Minori pursed her lips, fidgeted more then looked away. After a few seconds of silence, she plucked the sunglasses from her face, and gazed back at Ami with those glassy eyes of her. "A-min? Are you afraid of ghosts?"

Ami blinked in confusion. For a moment, she was confused with what Minori was trying to say, until she suddenly remembered the summer of their second year of high school in Oohashi. She remembered standing in the kitchen of her little retreat house, her back pressed against the wall near the door that led out to the veranda. And she remembered seeing Ryuuji and Minori talking about ghosts and UFOs.

She fell back on her chair and crossed her legs. "Ghosts, huh? No, I don't think I'm scared of those."

"Really? They frighten me to death." She slowly placed the sunglasses on the table right next to Ami's coffee cup. "Especially now that I'm able to see them."

Ami felt her eyebrows climb up her forehead. "And what kind of ghost are you seeing, specifically? Could it be… that _Takasu-kun _frightens you? Or… could it be _Aisaka-san?"_

Hitting the nail on the head was always Ami's defining trait. Minori's eyes closed when she smiled painfully. "Both. They scare the living daylights out of me."

"Oh? And why is that?"

"Because I love Taiga like a sister. And I love Takasu, period. And I don't know if UFOs are real, and I don't know where I fit in between."

Ami leaned forward and took her cup into her hands, took a sip and decided it wiser not to say anything. _That makes two of us, Kushieda-san._

* * *

Before Taiga transferred to Oohashi, the only thing she really enjoyed in the private Catholic school her parents made her go to were the outreach programs the sisters held once every quarter of the year. Though Taiga had specifically loved Christmas because she was given a good enough excuse to offer material things to the children in the orphanage without making it look like she was feeling sorry for them, she had enjoyed the times when her class would visit the orphanages in Tokyo to teach the children about God.

Yes, she taught about God.

Taiga had always believed in beings she couldn't see, like, say, Santa Clause. The people around her – especially when she had leaped over that line between ages that allowed you to still believe in the tooth fairy and not get bullied at school for thinking so – had made fun of her many times.

But those that told her she was an idiot for believing in Santa did not know how it was to have two houses, two teddy bears and two sets of beds because your parents couldn't stand each other anymore.

All of Taiga's classmates in her previous school were Catholics, and although most of them were Japanese, they did not want to "believe" in divorce.

'What God put together cannot be separated by man'… or so they taught her. But of course, Taiga was not a Catholic. Her parents had sent her to that school because it was the best thing money could buy at the moment, and because Aisaka Rikurou was convinced that money fixed anything, she was sent to St. Maria's School in Tokyo along with all the rich snobs there who thought it was not a sin to condemn people who did not believe what _they _believed.

They were all sissies anyway. They couldn't even block a right hook.

Well, she had ended up getting expelled after this led to that, and she didn't feel the least bit of regret in it, except for the fact that she would no longer be able to see the children in the orphanages.

And so finding a job in a daycare made her happier than she'd let herself admit.

"Thank you for working hard today, Aisaka-san," came a voice from behind her right after she slipped on her shoes.

She turned around and came face to face with the kind head of the Daycare, Kirishima Kanna. Taiga actually liked the lady. In her mid thirties, with a head of dark brown hair cut straight across her shoulders and wide-rimmed glasses, she reminded Taiga of a very pretty librarian. The woman was soft-spoken and for some reason wore a little smile on her lips that Taiga first thought to have been a façade. After working with the woman for almost two months, she had come to discover that the smile was genuine, and that it was a smile that resulted from her liking her job. After all, what was not to like?

Taiga grinned up at Kirishima-san. "You, too, ma'am. Are you on your way home?" It was already seven in the evening, and they were closing the daycare later than usual because of some parents who were trying to cram whatever they can with their work because of the approaching Golden Week holiday. Lately, they had been keeping kids a couple of hours later than usual to accommodate those whose parents both worked in the day.

Kirishima-san nodded. "Yes. How about you? Tomorrow is a Saturday, so you would be off to your fiancé's house early tomorrow, right?"

Taiga felt her face blush. She had not meant to tell her coworkers about her being engaged – or anything that concerned her private life, for that matter – but they had been inviting her again and again every Friday for karaoke that she had blurted out the truth that weekends were reserved for Ryuuji just to get them off her back. They had been shocked to learn that she was actually seeing someone.

And she didn't know if she should have taken that as an insult or not.

She scratched her head and hitched her knapsack over her shoulder nervously. "Ah, yes… "

"Do you have any plans for tomorrow?"

"Uhm… sort of…" Today was the day his results for the entrance exams would be released. She knew without looking that Ryuuji would pass. She wasn't worried and so had actually asked him out to dinner tomorrow to celebrate.

"I see. Ah, the wonders of youth. I remember when I was your age… "

Taiga zoned her voice out and closed her shoe locker absentmindedly. Another thing that drew Taiga to Kirishima-san was the strange likeness she had with Taiga's homeroom teacher, Koigakubo Yuri. Both of them seemed to bear great regret about their teenage days, and although Kirishima-san was a tad more composed than Yuri-sensei when it came to her non-existent love-life, they were both quite hopeless romantics and if not a bit bitter about the decisions they've made in sacrificing romance over their jobs.

"He is such a lucky man," Kirishima-san suddenly said.

Taiga snapped out of her reverie and looked up in bewilderment. That was the problem with Japanese lately. They tend to spout out-of-base compliments to make the other feel good. Or at least they _think_ it would make others feel good. She tried to fight down the annoyance threatening to bubble up her gut. Kirishima-san did not know what she was saying. Ryuuji was not lucky to have _her_.

_She_ was lucky to have _him_.

Although she had wondered many times lately if she really did deserve him.

She smiled. "Thank you. I'll see you on Monday." And she left hurriedly out the door of the Daycare before her co-worker started another uncomfortable conversation that she could avoid. Making her escape and waving enthusiastically to the older woman to avoid any misunderstandings that could make her working environment harder than it was, she hopped down the steps onto the sidewalk and dashed away.

Akasaka's night life was not as busy as the other districts in Tokyo, except for a few nice restaurants scattered along the main boulevard where her apartment was located. Taiga stalked down the same alley she took every night, all the while wondering what flavor of cup ramen she was going to buy in the Seven-Eleven along the way. She knew that if Ryuuji ever found out that she was still eating instant ramen for dinner, she would get an earful about calories, nutrients and sodium intake.

She could not help but smile at the thought of Ryuuji as she imagined how his face would contort into an ugly scowl once he found out she was disobeying him. He was such a worry-wart. Thinking that what Ryuuji did not know wouldn't hurt him, Taiga practically skipped into the convenience store and went straight to the shelf where her staple food was displayed in neat rows of Original, Seafood and Curry flavors.

"Here you go," Taiga muttered to herself as she plucked a Seafood flavored one without even pausing. Maybe she could break away from tradition and spare a few yen for an ice cream? Nodding to herself, she strayed over at the refrigerator at the back of the store and was about to press her face against the glass to scout around for a decent enough popsicle or one of those chocolate ice cream bars when something outside the wide windows of the Seven-Eleven caught her eye.

She blinked in disbelief before hurrying over to the magazine racks, tucked the cup ramen under one arm, grabbed a random book and used it to cover her face. She peeked over the book at the sight that she could not even believe possible.

There was no mistaking it. That blond head. That cute outfit. Those breasts.

"Ya… chan… ?"

And she was with a man.

Taiga didn't even notice she was holding her breath as she narrowed her eyes at the couple. They were standing at the edge of the pedestrian lane, waiting for the light to change. They were talking about something. Ya-chan was smiling up at the man and she was talking animatedly with her hands.

Taiga squinted and sidestepped to the right in attempts to get a glimpse of the face of her companion, but the angle was off, and she could barely even make out his profile. He could easily be in his forties, wearing a suit that even at this distance Taiga could tell was expensive. Her father loved expensive suits and Taiga had learned to judge an outfit by its price, and a person by their outfit.

Could it be a customer from the bar she was working in? No, that can't be right. Ya-chan never accepted dates with customers outside work.

Taiga ducked behind her book again, willing herself to breath normally. She swallowed hard. No, maybe her eyes were deceiving her. Maybe it wasn't Ya-chan. She peeked over her book again.

She gasped when she saw the man wrap his arm around Ya-chan's waist. Ya-chan blushed, smiled shyly then rested her head on the shoulder of the man.

It was definitely Ya-chan…

Taiga dropped her book and her cup ramen, startling the man reading a magazine standing a few feet away from her. She threw him a dirty glare when she noticed him staring, grabbed the book and cup ramen hastily and straightened up just in time to see Ya-chan and the mystery man cross the street. Taiga squinted against the glass of the window pane to see the face of the man, but they were already too far away and in no time had hailed a taxi and drove away without even realizing they were being watched.

Taiga didn't even know what to do. A part of her wanted to grab her mobile and call Ryuuji then and there… but the moment she had her phone in her hand, she discovered that she had no idea what to tell him, or how to say it. It could be that Ryuuji already knew that his mother was seeing a man outside work.

She shook herself. Why was she acting as if she had seen something indecent?

_I mean, Ya-chan isn't a kid anymore. Well, she may act like she's a kid most of the time… but… that doesn't mean she can't _date!

She shook herself again and stuffed the book back on its shelf. Then, giving the man beside her one final snarl, she headed for the cashier to pay for her dinner.

No. She should not panic. This was not a bad thing. This was not a bad thing! Ya-chan was still very young. It would not be weird if she went out with other men. This was not new to her. Her mother dated other men after her father. Her father dated other women after her mother.

But Ya-chan was not her mother, or her father.

Ya-chan was _Ya-chan_.

Taiga stepped out of the convenience store, pulled out her mobile from her pocket again and pounded on the keys with shaky fingers. She waited for it to ring twice, and then he answered.

"_Hello? Taiga?"_

Taiga snapped her mobile shut.

Damn.

* * *

_**TBC**_

* * *

_A/N: All of us who write (and read) fanfiction, do so for many reasons. Some of us on this site are here because we loved the original work so much that we just didn't want it to end. Some of us are here because we think it should have gone differently. There are many other reasons, but one thing's for sure: we are here because the original work had managed to move our emotions, and we start to interpret the work in so many different ways depending on how it has touched us personally. And because of this, fanfics are born._

_I don't usually explain how I perceive an original work, because we are, in one way or another, capable of deriving many different meanings from the same story, such as Toradora!, but just for the sake of this story, and the wonderful people who bother to read it, I'd like to make an exception. _

_I have received some reviews about my take on Taiga's personality. Could it be that I am the only one who thinks Taiga has a bad habit of running away, especially from people she cares about, like say, Ryuuji, her dad, Minori and the gang? Running away doesn't necessarily mean using your legs and dashing off somewhere. Taiga had always struck me to be someone who conveniently uses other people's feelings to run away from a situation. She had always denied herself of her feelings for Ryuuji and 'ran away' from the possibility of falling for him because she thought Ryuuji and Minori deserved each other. _

_If you're curious about it, try watching the series again from episode 8 or 9, when I think Taiga had started developing feelings for Ryuuji. I had noticed that by this time, she would always cover up her embarrassment with violence when it came to her feelings, a very nice example of running away from the truth. She disliked answering calls from her father, violently kicked him between the legs and tried to take refuge in Ryuuji's house, and would have been successful had Ryuuji not stopped her. By Christmas, she kept on pushing Minori and Ryuuji together to once again escape from the truth that she _needed_ Ryuuji, and even tried to stop him from leaving, only too late. The next time she actually literally tried to run away again was during Valentines Day when the gang cornered her in the computer room after she gave them chocolates, and everyone started to pressure her into being honest with her feelings about Ryuuji. And she ran like crazy when Ami left the door open intentionally. She ran away from her mother as well, and then decided to "elope" with Ryuuji after. To me, Taiga had always been running away for two reasons: Either because of pride, or denial. _

_Or at least this is how I take her character. _

_Her desperate requests from Ryuuji to kiss her again, and again and again near the end of the series struck me as well, and I wanted to make her evolve into someone who is no longer a child who starts to see Ryuuji as a "man" and no longer her "dog"._

_There were some reviews about Ami's character as well, but this author's note has already dragged on too long, lol! If you're curious on my take on the characters, I'd be glad to answer them, though. This is actually one of those slice-of-life stories that struck a chord in me, given that they not only deal with teenage love, but branches out into so many other topics in real life like dysfunctional families, teenage insecurity and friendship. So if you have any further questions, you can just PM me about it, so that we can keep my author's notes short and simple from here on. :)_

_Of course this is just MY view of the series. We are all entitled to our own interpretations, but for the sake of those reading this story, I just wanted to draw where I'm coming from. There is no way am I going to force my thoughts on the series to you guys, because I know that we are all here because we love Toradora!. _


	11. Assumptions and Taiga

**Chapter Eleven:**

**Toyotas, Assumptions and Taiga**

* * *

_~May 4~_

Ryuuji had received the letter from Ninomae yesterday, and he already knew what was in it just by its weight. They had sent the response along with the available schedules of classes he needed to take for the semester along with several pamphlets for extra-curricular activities the University had to offer. He had already gotten his hand on those pamphlets from Kushieda last month and he hadn't really bothered browsing them.

Yasuko had been ecstatic and in fact bought an A4 sized picture frame for the acceptance letter, which was now hanging proudly on a wall in Yasuko's room. Ryuuji had tried to stop her, but to no avail. Yasuko was just too happy to be stopped. Not that Ryuuji minded. Yasuko got excited over the littlest of things, and now was not an exception. Although Ryuuji had to admit, Yasuko had been acting strangely. But if anything, for the better. Lately, she had been… how should he put it? Giddy? Happy?

She came late almost everyday, but yeah, she looked happy.

"How about some hotdogs?" Ryuuji suggested as he pushed their grocery cart along the frozen foods section of the local supermarket. He had promised Taiga a picnic tomorrow. Yasuko was getting a well-deserved day off, and they had planned on dragging her along by the river to celebrate the final days of the Golden Week together.

"Only if you make them into octopi," Taiga said as she leaned down on one of the chillers to poke a bag of frozen vegetables with a tentative finger.

Ryuuji couldn't help but grin down at her as he took a bag of bite-sized hotdogs and put it in the cart. "Octopi? How about tiny hotdog crabs?"

That got Taiga started, and she looked up with that wide, bright-eyed gaze landing on his face. "You can make crab-shaped hotdogs?"

"And penguin-shaped ones, too."

Taiga paused, then put on a thoughtful expression on her face. "Penguins?"

"Yeah."

She nodded happily. It was a wonder how one could be happy about penguin-shaped hotdogs. "I'd like that."

Ryuuji started the cart again, picking up a bag of fries along the way. "What else do you want for the picnic?"

"Ice cream."

"We can't bring ice cream on a picnic. It'll melt. Why don't we settle for some pie for desert?"

That had her thinking again. After a while, she nodded. "Pie is fine, then. And… um… pudding."

Ryuuji paused in the middle of grabbing a pack of gyouza. He did not think he had the heart to tell her that bringing anything made of milk on a warm day was not a good idea. Taking the gyouza from the chiller and dumping it into the cart, he placed a hand on top of Taiga's head and sighed. "Whatever you want, Taiga."

Taiga looked up at him with a tiny grin before plucking Ryuuji's hand off her hair. Much to Ryuuji's surprise, she did not let go. It was not as if he hadn't held hands with her in public, but it was just one of those very few times Taiga actually initiated it. Ryuuji averted his look from her before she started thinking he was making too much of a big deal out of it.

Taiga placed her free hand on the handle of the push-cart beside Ryuuji's and they continued down the aisle slowly. "So," she started. "Will Ya-chan really come with us? She always finds an excuse to weasel out of our invitations so she could sleep all day."

Ryuuji frowned, but immediately arranged his face before Taiga noticed. "Don't worry. She was up and about at eight in the morning. Can you believe that?" He couldn't believe it himself, especially when he knew Yasuko had been out till four in the morning and Ryuuji doubted she'd had enough sleep. And Yasuko loved sleep more than anything.

Taiga blinked at him in disbelief. "At eight in the morning? And what on earth was she doing at eight in the morning?"

"She was cleaning," Ryuuji said, somehow saying it out loud made it even more unbelievable. Yasuko never cleaned. Especially not in the wee early hours of the day. She had been lumbering around in her jammies wiping off non-existent dust off shelves and tables that Ryuuji made sure to clean every single day.

It was obvious she was uneasy about something, and as always, she never told him anything. Because she never usually did. Not lately, anyway.

He felt a gentle pressure on his hand and he looked down to find Taiga looking up at him, an eyebrow raised.

"Ryuuji, are you okay?" she asked gently.

Ryuuji had just realized that they had parked their cart in front of the ice cream section. He shook himself hurriedly. "What? Of course. Of course I am."

She had a small smile on her lips and although she did not look too convinced she did not say anything about it except, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, why? What makes you think I'm not all right?"

"Because you just, yeah, you just walked past the eggs. And they're a hundred and thirty-three yen. Cheap, yeah?"

Ryuuji did a double take and discovered that Taiga was right. Something that did not happen much at all, especially not on an egg sale. He shook his head in disbelief.

"I'll go get a pack or two," Taiga said when Ryuuji did not show any signs of getting them. She shook her hand from his grip and hurried over the neat stack of eggs, leaving Ryuuji looking after her in a daze.

Taiga was being… _nice_. And it wasn't even Christmas yet. Normally, she would have made a big deal out of him missing out on such obvious things like sales. But here she was, being… well… _nice_.

"Here you go," Taiga said, returning with two packs of eggs and gently placing them inside their cart. She dusted her hands on her jacket in exaggeration. "What else is there we need?"

Ryuuji furrowed his brow unawares. He did not notice the three high schoolers who were trying to browse for ice cream a few feet away from him who nearly jumped when he clicked his tongue against his teeth. They scuttled away like frightened little mice when they saw Ryuuji frowning. Of course, Ryuuji was oblivious of this. He could only see Taiga peering down at their cart with disinterest.

Sighing, he pulled at a tuft of hair hanging down his forehead.

Taiga noticed him and she suddenly reached up to swat his hand away and unceremoniously grabbed said tuft of hair, yanking at it violently.

"Ow! What are you doing?" Ryuuji cried, backing away from her and nearly knocking their cart onto the freezer to their right.

Taiga snickered as she steadied their cart after jumping away from Ryuuji. "I was pulling you back to the world of the living. You've been dazing off a lot lately."

Ryuuji was not pleased. "You do, too. But you don't see me pulling at _your_ hair."

She grinned up at him. "That's because you love me."

"What? And you don't love _me_?"

She blinked, the grin widening. "I love you to death, Ryuuji. You know that."

This reply surprised him. She usually never spouted out words of affirmation. It did wonders to his nerves; while he had never really doubted Taiga's feelings, he discovered that hearing first-hand made him feel… good. Safe.

_Loved. _

He wondered whatever she saw in him. He had never really bothered to ask. And she didn't look like she would answer him truthfully if he ever did. He sighed. "We have all the things we need. We should be heading back. It'll take a while to get everything ready. You're helping me, whether you like it or not."

Taiga nodded silently as she hurried back to his side to help him push their cart along. She was being strangely clingy today. Of course, he was not the one to complain, although it did pique his curiosity. He was starting to wonder if she was up to something. Or worse yet, was there something she wanted from him? He decided that whatever she was up to, she would not be telling him any time soon. He pushed the thought at the back of his mind as they proceeded to the cashier to get everything they had in their cart checked out and paid for. They each had a grocery bag in hand once exiting the supermarket.

Their walk back home was not a long one. It usually took but a seven-minute walk from the supermarket to the Takasu household, but for some weird reason, Taiga kept on stopping along the way for the strangest excuses. It was either to examine a dandelion growing from a crack on the sidewalk, or a sparrow she thought she saw perched on a tree, or a silly-looking hat on the display window of a boutique. All the while she had been throwing him curve balls in their conversations, like, "When we get married I want to live in the suburbs," or, "Wouldn't a backyard be nice for barbecues?" and the like.

He did not know what was up, and he was supposed to ask her finally what was going on. But all words were gone from his head when they turned the curb to his apartment to find a very expensive-looking Toyota parked conveniently in front of their compound. He stopped on his tracks. He knew that the first floor resident had moved out a month ago, and there was no mistaking it that whoever that car belonged to, it was most definitely _their _guest.

Taiga was instantly tense beside him, and the hand free of the grocery bag was instantly clutching his sleeve. He looked down at her to see a frown on her tiny lips. Lately, Taiga had always been wary of anything that projected the aura of money. Perhaps a part of her had been assuming it would be her father, or someone associated to him.

Ryuuji cleared his throat. "Yasuko must have someone over," he said matter-of-factly and started to walk towards the stairwell that led up to their unit. Taiga's grip tightened on his sleeve but nonetheless walked with him. She did not look too happy. And the frown on her face deepened into a scowl when they opened the front door to see a pair of shiny black leather shoes neatly arranged on their narrow entranceway, and they could hear a male voice talking from within the apartment, followed by Yasuko's melodious laughter.

Ryuuji blinked. Could it be that his mother had been expecting someone to drop by today? The reason behind her strange cleaning behavior earlier that day started to make sense. For a brief moment, he actually hesitated if he should call out to them. Thinking that it would be the polite thing to do, he took a deep breath and said in a loud voice, "We're back!" as he placed the grocery bag on the floor and proceeded to taking off his shoes.

Taiga jumped at his voice and she clutched her grocery bag to her chest like some flimsy shield. What on earth was she afraid of? In the living room, he could hear Yasuko blabber some gibberish and there was a lot of scuttling from the inside before Yasuko's blonde head popped through the door that led inside. Her face was a bit flushed, and Ryuuji could hardly believe his eyes when he saw his mother dressed in a casual blue sundress.

Ryuuji laughed as he gestured at her. "You look nice. Considering you always prefer sweats on your day-off. You should have told me you were having someone over. I would have made something – "

Yasuko beamed at him excitedly as she hurried to him, taking his grocery bag before turning to Taiga and taking hers as well. "Ryu-chan and Taiga-chan, welcome home," she gushed, almost uncharacteristically – _eerily_ – motherly-like. She was talking fast. Yasuko never talked fast. She had always believed that a lady did not need to hurry about anything. Good things came to a lady. She was never the one to rush.

But she looked flustered and very much in a hurry right now.

Ryuuji raised an eyebrow. Taiga simply stood in place. "What's going on? You're acting weird."

She shifted both the grocery bags in one hand, grabbed Ryuuji's hand with her free one, and pulled at him eagerly. "Ya – I-I want you to meet someone."

And that was practically the last straw. Yasuko never referred to herself as _'me'_ or _'I'_. She had always referred herself in the third-person basis, because she had always believed it to make her appear cuter. Yasuko turned to Taiga and nodded encouragingly. "You too, Taiga-chan. You're a part of this family, so I want you to meet him, too."

Taiga took an involuntary step back. She did not say anything. Yasuko looked too engrossed in whatever was happening at the moment that she did not seem to notice Taiga's obvious strange behavior. Ryuuji looked from Yasuko's excited face to Taiga's very troubled one and did not know what to do.

Unfortunately he was not given the chance to mull it over in his head.

Because the next moment, a man Ryuuji had never ever seen in his life stepped out of their living room and into the hallway, smiling. He was tall, a few inches taller than Ryuuji himself, with dark hair combed neatly back. Through an outside perspective, Ryuuji would have defined him as good-looking. He knew how to dress, that's for sure. Right now, the man was in comfortable-looking slacks and a thin expensive-looking coat over a black shirt.

Yasuko's blush deepened further still and she laughed. "I told you to wait in the living room, Ma-kun."

Ryuuji blinked. Ma-kun? _Ma-kun?_

"I thought it would be rude not to welcome them home as well, since I _am_ intruding on your day-off, Yasuko-san," said the man, and he reached out to take the groceries from Yasuko. After that, he reached his free hand out to Ryuuji. "My name is Ikeda Masamune. You must be Ryuuji. I've heard so much about you."

Ryuuji shook the man's hand a second too long and he managed a feeble grin. "So have I," he lied faintly, casting a look at Yasuko who conveniently tried to ignore him. "Welcome. Please make yourself at home."

Masamune-san – Ikeda-san? – _Ma-kun?_ – laughed heartily. "Thank you. I'm really sorry for intruding like this."

Ryuuji shook his head as they finally let go of each others' hands. He could feel his palm tingling for some reason. "Not at all." He gestured to his side. "This is Aisaka Taiga. My fia – Hey!"

The words were cut short when Taiga suddenly grabbed his wrist, and with the strength he had nearly forgotten she had, pulled him out of the door and down the stairwell so fast he didn't know what was happening until they were half-way across the street and Yasuko was calling after them in a frenzy.

"Taiga! Taiga, stop!" Ryuuji said as they barreled down the corner and into a deserted alley between the bakery and the meat shop. He shook his wrist from Taiga's grip, looked down and noticed that he had run like mad all the way there with no shoes on. Just the thought of all the dirt and grime under his toes made him wince. He turned back to Taiga, who was bent over, panting, a hand to her side. "Taiga, what the hell is wrong with you? You just ran out on my mom's – "

"Your mom's what, Ryuuji? Your mom's _what?_" Taiga spat out, her face still down, long hair like a light curtain on her face.

Ryuuji struggled for words. In the end, he just didn't know. He had never heard about Ikeda Masamune from Yasuko before, not even in passing. "I don't know. Her friend? Her _boyfriend?_ Does it really matter? Yasuko looked happy to have him around."

That was when Taiga flashed her eyes towards him. She looked angry. It had been a while since Ryuuji had actually seen her angry. Was she angry at _him?_ "Does it matter? _Of course it matters, you mutt!"_

Ryuuji was taken aback. It had been a while since Taiga spouted out any dog insults, too.

Taiga straightened up and started to pace back and forth in front of him. "Ryuuji, this is terrible. Ya-chan is dating that man. I saw them once in Akasaka and they were all lovey-dovey."

Lovey… _what? _

Ryuuji winced. "Wait, you mean you knew Yasuko's dating a guy? Why didn't you tell me?"

Taiga rolled her eyes. "See? I knew this isn't going to be pretty. Nothing good comes out when parents start dating other people." Then without warning, she threw her arms around Ryuuji in a tight, if not unexpected, hug. "You don't have to pretend you're strong. You can tell me what you really feel."

Ryuuji tried very hard not to move. It appeared Taiga was under the impression that he was _'sad' _at finding Yasuko dating. To be honest, he really did not see anything bad about it. Yasuko was still very young and pretty. It often happened to single parents everywhere. If anything, Yasuko deserved it; she really did look pretty happy. "Uh… what I really feel? Well, I really feel weird without my shoes… "

Taiga shot him a death glare before burying her face onto his chest. "Not _that_. I meant about Ya-chan and that man!"

Ryuuji swallowed hard, feeling slightly uncomfortable when Taiga tightened her hold onto him and ended up getting pushed against the wall of the bakery. "About Yasuko and Ikeda-san? I don't know. Yasuko's never really dated before. At least as far as I know. I think it's about time she finally thought more about _her _future than _mine_."

Taiga shook her head vigorously, rubbing her cheeks against his shirt. "No! At first you think it's all right. But wait until they get _married_! Our history is full of these kinds of things, and all of them led to very bad circumstances."

Now she was starting to make even lesser sense. "What are you talking about?"

"Think about it, Ryuuji. Nothing good comes out of step-parents. Look at Snow White. _Look at Cinderella!"_

"Those are fairy tales. And they had very happy endings."

"That's beside the point!"

Ryuuji shrugged her embrace away, grabbed her by the forearms and held her at arms' length. "Taiga, listen to me. What we did back there was not just crazy, but very _rude_. That man was a guest at our house. And if what you say about them dating is true, then all the more should we go back there and apologize. This must mean a lot to Yasuko."

But once Taiga set her mind on something, it would take a lot more than that to convince her. She shook her head. "You're just saying that because you don't know about this. _I do!" _She backed away from him. "They'd come waltzing into your life as if they know better, and then they try too hard to please you. And when you finally let your guard down around them, they _change_. Almost overnight. And you'd realize that you mom and dad won't care as much about you. And before you know it… before you know it, you're living alone in a too-big apartment while your mom and dad try to redo their marriages with different people and they could care less about what happened to you."

And that was when Ryuuji finally understood what was going on. He instantly forgot about the dirt under his bare feet and he hurried to her, hugging her to his chest firmly. "Taiga, no. Your mom and dad, though they chose to live separate lives with different people, they care about you. They just…" _Just what? _"… they just have a weird way of showing it." He buried his face into her hair, and he felt her lithe arms snaking around his torso.

"Ya-chan will forget about you one day. And you're going to feel how painful it is to be forgotten," she muttered against his shirt. "I don't want you to get hurt."

Ryuuji shook his head. "I'm not. I'm fine. _We're _fine. Yasuko's fine."

"Sure, you're saying that now. But wait until they get married."

"Taiga, not all step-parents are bad. And if – _that's a big 'if'_ – Ikeda-san did turn out to be what you say he is, it doesn't matter. So long as he keeps Yasuko happy. And do you know why?"

"Because you're an idiot?" she offered, face still in his chest.

"No, because when we get married, then _you _will be my new family. And everything will be about you and me and me and you. And it'll be great. I promise."

And that was when Taiga finally raised her eyes to him shyly. Her face was red, but thank God she wasn't crying.

He smiled down at her. "Now, since Yasuko's cheering for our happiness, don't you think it's fair for us to cheer for _her _happiness, too? Let's stop running away from things that frighten us, Taiga. There's no question I want to spend my eternity with you, but I don't want to do it running away all the time. Let's face this together. Okay?"

And Taiga was silent. For a full minute, she just stood there, looking up at him. And then the next thing she said nearly had Ryuuji reeling. "Let's get married. Let's get married _right now_. We can go to City Hall and we can renew your family registry. And I can be your family right now, Ryuuji." She sounded so earnest. Taiga was always impatient about many things.

Ryuuji smiled at her and pulled her tighter to him. "You know I would give everything to do that. But we've made a promise to work hard and have everyone accept this relationship. So until I ask your hand from your father and mother, I'd have to say no."

And Taiga's scowl was back on her face. She puffed up her cheeks the way she always did when she was about to burst into a fit. But Ryuuji did not have the patience for this right now. In his house was the first ever man Yasuko had decided to introduce to him, and he had just walked out on him.

Not to mention he did not have any shoes.

So the moment Taiga opened her mouth to start a rant that promised an earful, Ryuuji pulled away from her, planted both palms on either side of her face, threw caution into the wind and kissed her.

Aside from that time a year ago when they had shared their first kiss, they had never really shared such intimacies because Taiga was too aloof and Ryuuji was just too passive. He had forgotten how soft her lips were, and how they tasted of strawberry lip gloss. The year he and Taiga had been apart, Yasuko had told him he had grown several centimeters. He had never really noticed until today, because he had to bend far down to accommodate her. She was already on tiptoe, looking very awkward as she strained her neck to return his kiss.

After several forevers, he finally pulled away an inch, searched her face and found her looking back at him with hazy eyes. Her hands circled around his neck and pulled him down a bit, then said, "One… more? Please?"

Ryuuji could only smile, remembering that time at his grandparents' house. She hasn't changed a bit. He knocked his forehead against hers. "You always struck me as a hater of public display of affection."

Taiga bit her lower lip. "This isn't public. It's just you and me and – "

The back door of the bakery opened loudly and a woman carrying a huge garbage bag stepped out into the alley.

Taiga and Ryuuji were a couple of feet away from each other in an instant.

The woman looked over to them and waved. "Hello there. What are you kids doing out here?"

Ryuuji and Taiga exchanged looks.

Taiga covered her eyes with a hand, sighed. "We were looking for his shoes…"

* * *

_**TBC**_


	12. Confessions of Ghost Sightings and Bad N

**Chapter Twelve**

**Confessions of Ghost Sightings and Bad News**

* * *

_~ July 9 ~_

It did turn out that Yasuko and Ikeda-san – _Masamune-san?_ – were dating. Ryuuji did not have anything against their arrangements, as he had never seen Yasuko this happy before. It seemed like Taiga, too, had started to accept it. For the past two months, life went along as Ryuuji had known it, with Taiga almost always busy with work and Yasuko sleeping over at Masamune-san's place in Roppongi every weekend. In all honesty, it was quite liberating. Ryuuji had always lived with Yasuko since forever, and high school life had been blessed with Taiga dropping over all the time for dinner. Until now, he hadn't been given the opportunity to discover the highlights of living alone.

One of those highlights was undisturbed cleaning time. How long had it been since he was able to move the washing machine and scrape at the molds thriving on their balcony floor?

Too long.

_Just too very long_.

Ryuuji had spent three hours of each of the days throughout May and June without Yasuko and Taiga, polishing up all the hard-to-reach places of their apartment, and by the first week of July, everything was shiny and lemony-fresh from the front door to the inner corners of Yasuko's closet. And he had been a happy camper because of that.

Aside from that, the couple of months had been very, very uneventful. A few instances, Taiga had found enough time to spend with him, which mostly composed of a quick meal and a very brief update on how their week went. Through the May and June days without having to be able to meet with Taiga, Ryuuji had spent preparing for the second semester at Ninomae. Books. Pencils. New pencil sharpeners.

More pencils…

He frowned to himself. He couldn't believe he was back to being a student. If he had his way with things, he would be busying himself, finding employment.

But here he was, in Ninomae because he had nothing better to do at the moment, thinking it a good idea to get acquainted with what the campus had to offer. He hadn't been there but a few minutes and he was already feeling like this was a mistake.

"Hey there, stranger," said a voice from behind him.

Ryuuji turned around to find Kushieda smiling up at him widely. It was still a good three months before the second semester even started, but for some reason Kushieda seemed to think that he was already a member of the student body. He grinned down at her, surprised. "Hey. I didn't know you had this hour free."

Kushieda shook her head briskly. "I have Literature, actually. But I saw you from the window of the classroom, so I thought of skipping. And here I am."

"Your teacher let you skip class?" Ryuuji asked, frowning.

"Yeah. When I told her I needed time to plot out my plans of ruling the world by October, she told me to get out and stop interrupting her class. Wasn't she just so understanding?"

"Ah," Ryuuji said eloquently, quite convinced that it had nothing to do with her teacher's understanding.

Kushieda hitched her bag over her shoulder and gestured at him. "So, what brings you here three months too early, by the way?"

Ryuuji could only scratch his head. What _was_ he doing here three months too early? He had never been good at first days of school; his high school days had always been filled with misunderstandings and most of the time he would spend making people realize that, no, he was not after their lunch money whenever his eyes would meet theirs. And no, he was not going to chew their faces off if they bumped into him.

Right now, he hadn't even been on campus for more than thirty minutes and he's had three girls squeal then run away when they accidentally bumped into him. Right after, two guys desperately apologized to him while offering their wallets when he ended up looking at them directly in the eye.

It was hopeless. He was going to have to live with the face he inherited from the father he never even knew. It had been easier back in high school, because Taiga had effortlessly made known that Takasu Ryuuji was nothing to be afraid of with one swift punch in the gut. But now…

"Nothing really. I guess I just wanted to look around," was what Ryuuji answered her as they moved along down the side of the building that housed the class Kushieda was presently skipping.

Kushieda nodded eagerly, as if understanding. "Yeah, well it's always easier to conquer familiar territory."

No one ever said anything about conquering, but Ryuuji already knew how to deal with Kushieda's crazy ramblings. He looked down at her from the corner of his eye. It was obvious she hadn't been sleeping well. There were dark circles under her eyes, her hair that had grown considerably longer was tied back into a very, very messy ponytail and Ryuuji couldn't help eye the slight wrinkles on her shirt, and he had to fight the urge to pat them down straight or risk getting charged with sexual harassment.

Ryuuji had seen Kushieda like this back in high school. It was that time when she had taken up three jobs at a time during summer break, and she had been barely sleeping. It had surprised him to no end, because he had never heard her complain or even look like she was having a bad day. She had done well with her studies, as well as her extra-curricular activities with the softball team, and she had never made poor excuses not to hang out with her friends.

Which was one of the reasons why he was beginning to wonder if there was something that she wasn't telling him.

Not that she was entitled to tell him _anything_; they had never really gone past the _'friends-but-not-those-kinds-of-friends'_ phase, where they hung out occasionally, but didn't really butt in on each others' businesses. This, however, did not mean Ryuuji didn't worry for her.

And those wrinkles on her shirt were driving him _nuts_.

"You saving up for something?" he asked, which he thought to be quite an odd question to ask out of the blue but asked anyway.

Kushieda looked up at him questioningly. "Hm? What do you mean?"

"You look like you've been losing sleep. How many jobs have you added to your load this time?"

She blinked in confusion, as if really unsure of what he was talking about. Then she laughed. "Oh, me? Aside from the job at the restaurant, I gave up all my other jobs. Why? Do I look overworked?"

Ryuuji frowned as he shifted his gaze from her face to where he was going. For some weird reason, this – the setting, the way she was walking at his left side – felt very, _very_ nostalgic. It reminded him of the days that came before their school trip back in their second year of high school, when Taiga had gone into the cupid role to match-make him and Kushieda. Taiga had been insistent, and that was the first time he had seen Taiga's determination at trying to stand on her own two feet.

In all honesty, Ryuuji had been more than willing then to give up on Kushieda completely, and had it not been for Taiga's insistence for him to ask Kushieda of her feelings for him, he just might have abandoned the thought altogether before their school trip.

At that time, little did he know that while Taiga had been thinking of Kushieda and him getting together, Kushieda had already been more than convinced that _'Taiga and Ryuuji'_ was the better option. Now that he thought about it, none of them really even asked _him _what he really wanted. They had just arbitrarily started setting him up with the girl they _thought _he should like.

Ryuuji shook his head, trying to get rid of the unpleasant thought. He wondered why he was suddenly thinking about this. This was definitely not the time, nor the place to be reminiscing about confusing things that even _he_ couldn't quite understand. All that he had managed to sort out back then, was that he tried his hardest because _Taiga _had believed in him.

Maybe even before that school trip, he had already been unconsciously in love with Taiga but was just too stupid to notice. Maybe. Or maybe it had been Kawashima's fault. That girl had always been good at stirring things and people with her riddles.

Girls. They scared the heck out of him.

And confused him to no end. Ryuuji had been more than sure that Kushieda and Kawashima had hated each other since the second day of that school's ski trip. And now they seemed to be the best of friends.

While on the other hand, Kushieda and Taiga's friendship had…

Ryuuji gave Kushieda a quick glance. She was humming to herself happily as she skipped beside him.

_Whatever happened to these two?_

He thought it improper to ask. He knew that whatever it was, it didn't have anything to do with him.

"Hey, are you hungry?" Kushieda suddenly asked as the alley opened up to the university square, right in front of them, the cafeteria. "They have the summer special Morioka Reimen set with a student discount until August." Then, in a very loud whisper, added, "I heard the new chef is from China, and uses chicken feet for his noodle broth. _Talons and all_. Cool, huh?"

Ryuuji found himself grimacing. Whatever the circumstances, he was definitely _not_ going to order the Morioka Reimen set. With or without the student discount. "I guess I am a bit hungry."

They made their way into the cafeteria. Except for a group of girls in one of the lounge seats at the far end, they were the only ones there. Ryuuji guessed that the place didn't get crowded until noon, and he was kind of grateful for the privacy.

They took their seats on one of the tables by the window, and Kushieda was immediately scanning the menu intently while making small talk.

"It's really rare to see you out of your daily routine, coming here for no purpose at all. I'd have thought you'd rather, I don't know, scrub at molds in your tatami mats?" Kushieda was saying as she flipped the page of the menu, keeping her eyes trained down. "Ah, but I guess you'd want a change of pace once in a while. Still a few ways away until October, though. You should try getting a job, Takasu-kun. It'll make time fly by faster. We have an opening in the restaurant where I work, you know."

Ryuuji shrugged, shook his head. Yasuko would have a fit if he even thought of getting a job. She hadn't been pleased before. He doubted she would be any forgiving now. "That's okay. I'm not fit for the service industry, anyway. Customers see my face and run the opposite direction."

That had Kushieda looking up from the menu, lowering it a few inches. She gave him a rueful look. "That's not true," she said before returning her gaze back down to browse the menu. She did not elaborate further, and Ryuuji just let the subject die. Kushieda had always been very polite and sincere when it came to other people, and she had been one of the very few who never judged him because of his looks.

That was why he wondered how such a nice, sincere person could ever severe ties with her best friend just like that.

Ryuuji bit his lower lip, unsure if he should try to ask her. Kushieda and Taiga had been inseparable back then. Were friendships between girls really that easy to forget? He hoped not. He sat straighter on his chair, resting his palms on the table.

"Say, Kushieda?"

Kushieda once again looked up from the menu. "Hn?"

"Whatever happened to you and Taiga?"

At the mention of the name, Kushieda's demeanor changed completely. She slowly closed the menu and lowered it on the table, laughing slightly. "Wow, that was kind of out of the blue. Taiga and I are fine. What's wrong?"

Ryuuji knew that face. He did not spend almost a year nursing an unrequited love for this girl enough to know when she was trying to cover up something she would rather not say. "I don't see you hanging out together anymore. We live in the same district, and meeting up for a coffee wouldn't normally be an impossibility."

Kushieda tucked an unruly lock of hair behind her ear, leaning back on her chair. "Taiga's working, and I'm studying."

"You two were glued to each others' sides back in high school."

"But this isn't high school anymore, Takasu-kun," she pointed out bluntly, her voice rising an octave. She seemed to have noticed this too, and she cleared her throat before continuing. "We're just both very busy. I mean, _you _hardly ever see her, right?"

And that had Ryuuji falling silent. Given, he and Taiga hadn't been spending too much time together lately. But he had a feeling that things between Taiga and Kushieda were different. He smiled a small smile. "Taiga's in a rough transition in her life right now."

"I know," she said quietly. "I know that, Takasu-kun. But so am I."

Now that had Ryuuji blinking in confusion. Kushieda? In a rough transition? Did he miss something here? He leaned forward. "Wait, what? Is… is something wrong? Did something happen to you? Your family? Can I help?"

Kushieda was now watching him intently. So intently that he could practically see his reflection in those wide open eyes of hers. She scratched her cheek lightly with a finger before opening her mouth to say – lo and behold – what only _Kushieda_ could say in a situation like this: "I think I'm able to see ghosts now, Takasu-kun."

Ryuuji blinked once, twice. He tried to process this in his head for a bit, because a few seconds ago, he had been genuinely worried that something was really up with her. He rubbed his forehead in confusion. "Ghosts? Like, _whoo-whoo _scary ghosts?"

She nodded seriously. "And UFOs, I think. They've been hovering about me for some time now. Like houseflies. Annoying, annoying houseflies."

Okay…

Ryuuji tilted his head to the side, gave her a clueless look. "And… this, err, _'phenomenon'?_ I don't know what to call it; this _'rough transition'_… is the reason why you've been avoiding Taiga? Am I right?"

"Technically, yes."

"Why?"

"It's complicated."

Well, yes. It certainly was. He gestured at her. "So… like… do you want me to accompany you to a shrine? A temple? Ask a monk to exorcise – "

"No," she blurted out suddenly.

"Why not? It's a bother, right?"

And Kushieda was taken aback. A confused look passed over her face for a few seconds before it disappeared once more, as if it never was there. She leaned forward, her hands now creeping on top of the table slowly until the tips of her middle and forefinger touched Ryuuji's hand that he had unconsciously clenched into a fist.

"I think I like seeing ghosts. And UFOs, for that matter."

The conversation just got even weirder. Actually, she had lost him with the houseflies. He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted when his mobile phone started to vibrate in his pocket. Someone was calling him.

He was about to reach for it when Kushieda's hand suddenly grabbed his and held on tightly, nearly making him jump.

It had been back in high school did he actually get to hold hands with this girl. She had been warm then, he remembered. Right now, her palm was clammy and a bit cold to the touch.

"Kushieda?"

She was biting her lip anxiously. Her eyes were wide and intent on him. "Takasu-kun…"

His mobile kept on vibrating. He looked down at the hand Kushieda was holding. "Look, hold on a sec, okay? I think someone's trying to reach me."

Having said that, Ryuuji had expected for Kushieda to let his hand go. Much to his discomfort, she held on, and he was forced to fish his mobile awkwardly with his left hand. He flipped it open just in time when the call ended. His eyebrows rose when he saw that he's had ten missed calls and three messages already. Punching in a few buttons to check his directory, he found out that Yasuko had called him seven times, Taiga three. He must not have noticed them calling while he and Kushieda were walking to the cafeteria.

For some reason, Ryuuji did not have a good feeling about this. "Sorry, Kushieda. It's Taiga. I need to call her back, okay?" he said as he had already pressed the recall button and was pressing his mobile to his ear.

Kushieda was watching him, and he would actually prefer she'd let go of his hand so he could take the call in private, but she was still holding onto him, if anything her grip tightening.

It rang twice, thrice. Taiga wasn't picking up.

Ryuuji looked over to Kushieda and nearly dropped his phone when he discovered two silent tears trickling quietly down her cheeks. "Kushieda? What's wrong? Hey is – "

And that was when Taiga finally picked up. Her voice was a bit flustered, as if she had been running. Or was still running. _"Ryuuji? Ryuuji, why weren't you picking up your phone? Ya-chan's been trying to reach you!"_

Ryuuji, at that moment, did not know what to do. "I-I'm sorry. I had my phone on silent mode all morning since I had to take a bus. I didn't realize – can you hold on for a second?" He turned to Kushieda, shaking his hand free from her grip and reaching for his breast pocket for a handkerchief.

"_Ryuuji, where are you? It's an emergency. We don't have time."_

Ryuuji, listening with half an ear, extended his handkerchief and offered it to Kushieda wordlessly. "Don't have time for what? I'm on campus right now."

"_It's your grandfather, Ryuuji."_

"Huh? Grandpa?"

And that had to be the mother or all bad timings when Kushieda blurted out something that for a moment he could hardly believe what she just said to him. In one moment, she was silently crying there, the next, she had snatched his handkerchief quickly, leaned forward, kissed him on the forehead before uttering: _"I've always loved you."_

And the world had suddenly dropped from its axis.

Ryuuji felt a tingling sensation on the part where her lips touched his forehead, and he could have cried out then and there, had Kushieda not suddenly chosen that time to catapult to a standing position and storm out of the cafeteria so fast that he couldn't even react.

"_Ryuuji? Ryuuji! Are you listening?"_

Snapping back to reality, Ryuuji sat back against his chair, at the moment unsure of what had just happened. "I'm sorry… I'm here. What about grandpa?"

"_He's had a heart attack. Ya-chan's been trying to reach you and called me instead when you wouldn't answer. They've taken him to Keidai. Your grandmother's already there, and Ya-chan and Ikeda-san are on their way. I left work early. I'll meet you there."_

And nothing – probably not even news about the end of the universe – could have delivered a more fatal blow into Ryuuji's gut at that moment.

Because Kushieda Minori – the girl he had liked all of his high school days – had just told him that she had _'always loved him'_ before running away like a heroin of some shoujou manga.

And because Taiga had just declared that one of the very few family members that he was actually acquainted with had just been rushed to the hospital and it took them ten calls before they were finally able to reach him.

He could not even remember what happened after that. It was like his legs were on autopilot and before he knew it, he was flying through the doors of that cafeteria and running to the metro station as if his life depended on it. He had to hurry, and as he pounded down the stairs that led to the subway, he felt like Kushieda's thoughts were running after him like a…

Like a goddamned ghost.

Or UFO.

Or whatever.

_Damn it._


End file.
